An editorial from The Inter-Mountain:
ELKINS, W.Va. — As the children’s song says, the wheels on the bus go ’round and ’round. Unless there’s no one to drive the bus.
The Randolph County school system is nearing a crisis situation: there simply aren’t enough available bus drivers to handle the routes every day of the school year. And many other West Virginia counties are facing the same problems, officials said.
Randolph County Superintendent of Schools Terry George said the school system is in dire need of substitute bus drivers.
“There have been numerous times during this school year that transportation director Randy Long has had to go out and serve as a substitute driver, as have our mechanics, which takes time away from maintaining the buses,” George said.
“If not for our retired drivers who now work as substitutes, we couldn’t make it right now,” he said. “It’s a problem all over the state.”
In Kanawha County, school officials have said that recent retirements and employee illnesses have created a shortage of drivers this year. There aren’t enough substitutes to cover the routes in that county, either…
