Thumbnail photo by Paul Critz Del Norte County Unified School District’s transportation director painted as optimistic a picture as he could when describing the first week of school for trustees. But, though he said things have improved, Chris Armington admitted to cases where students were nearly an hour late getting to school. “We are making strides to make sure that communications do go out to the parents,” he told trustees on Thursday. “I work with [DNUSD communications director] Michael Hawkins on communicating our shortages and our lates to the community, and we ask parents to assist if they can take their students rather than them being super late.” DNUSD bus driver Andrea Wadsworth was less diplomatic, describing the situation as a “hot mess.” The drivers are doing the best they can, she said. “We really are trying to do our best and trying to get to school on time is one of the main priorities,” Wadsworth said. “We’re drained. We’ve been doing more than eight hours of drive time every day to cover somebody else’s route and then staying late and calling parents. Most people don’t understand all this.” The Friday before students were set to return to campus last week, DNUSD stated in a Facebook post that it had consolidated its 15 routes down to 13 and, with two contracted drivers not returning to work, there were only 11 available. All bus routes with one exception were scheduled to run on time. Families of Crescent Elk Middle School and Del Norte High School students who live north of Washington Boulevard were asked to find alternate transportation if they could to “ease the load on [the] adjusted routes.” There are currently 11 bus drivers transporting between 500 and 700 students, Armington told trustees on Thursday. Two people are in the process of being hired — one person has just completed their training and another recruit is nearing completion, Armington said. Though they applauded the driver — with Board President Charlaine Mazzei saying she knows their job isn’t easy — trustees pointed out that not much had changed in the transportation department since the previous year. Getting kids to school was challenging back then due to a shortage of bus drivers, Mazzei said. “What are the barriers?” She asked. “We’re here again and we still haven’t fixed it. It’s not OK to have students getting to school late.” According to Armington, DNUSD lost its state-certified instructor last year as well as two bus drivers and a substitute bus driver over the summer. There were enough drivers when the bus routes were created in about mid summer, he said, but the two bus drivers left two weeks before school started. Recruitment for bus drivers is challenging statewide, Armington said. California has more stringent qualifications and training requirements than other states, he said. In Southern California, where he worked as a driver before coming to DNUSD, Armington said that often there would be 24 applicants and three would finish their training and pass the requisite tests. “After fingerprinting, they will go and do an interview with the CHP officer that’s doing the training,” Armington said. “He will look at that and then get information back from the Department of Justice to make sure they qualify based on their background [check] and such, and then continue on through the process for training and testing.” In May, parents went before the DNUSD Board after their child’s bus service to school had been canceled. Melissa Endert, whose children attend Smith River School, said that while finding out at the last minute a bus wouldn’t be picking her kids up was a sacrifice, for some parents don’t have a vehicle or the time to take their young ones to school. “If the buses aren’t running, they can’t attend school,” Endert told trustees at a May 22 meeting. “If they come to school an hour late, they’re missing breakfast, they’re missing time and they’re stressed. They’re hungry, they’re anxious and they’re worried and it’s already a long bus route.” The route delays last year made DNUSD Board member Michael Greer question whether it was prudent to use two buses to take 85 middle school students to an event at Cal Poly Humboldt. On Thursday, Del Norte Teachers Association President Amber Tiedeken-Cron brought up field trips, saying she appreciated Mazzei's statement that she didn’t want to “be here three months from now” with the same issues. “We have a ton of field trip money,” Tiedeken-Cron said. “I would love to start planning field trips. But I can’t plan it if I don’t have a bus because that’s going to be a letdown.” Shawn Schubert, president of California School Employees Association’s Great Northern 178 chapter, applauded the district’s bus drivers and said they need to be notified quickly when changes are being made so they can have input. “They are the ones that do it every day,” he said. “Communication is one aspect of the whole thing we think should be a little bit better.”