PETITION FOR SAFE, RELIABLE & ADEQUATELY STAFFED SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION

To the Lamar County School District Board of Education and Administration:

We, the undersigned parents, guardians, students, employees, and members of the Lamar County community, respectfully ask the Lamar County School District to take immediate action to address the shortage of school bus drivers, increasingly long routes, overcrowded buses, excessive student ride times, and the recruitment and retention of qualified transportation employees.

This petition is not a criticism of our bus drivers. It is a call for the district to support them.

Our drivers are being asked to carry an enormous responsibility, and we appreciate the work they do every day. However, a transportation system cannot remain sustainable when too much responsibility is placed on too few drivers.

WHY WE ARE SPEAKING UP

Lamar County families are experiencing increasingly long bus rides as the district works to cover routes with an insufficient number of drivers.

On September 14, 2026, children in our community spent approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes on a school bus in one afternoon.

That is far beyond what most parents would consider a reasonable amount of time for a child to spend traveling home from school.

This is not simply about inconvenience. Excessive ride times take away from children’s time at home, homework, activities, family, rest, and other parts of their lives outside the classroom.

It also creates additional pressure on the drivers responsible for transporting these students.

The district is actively recruiting bus drivers, making it clear that transportation staffing remains an ongoing need. The solution cannot be to continually stretch existing drivers, extend routes, combine routes, and increase the number of students transported by the drivers who are already available.

We need a transportation system that is adequately staffed and sustainable.

WE ARE ASKING FOR SPECIFIC ACTION

We respectfully request that Lamar County School District:

1. Review and improve bus driver compensation.

Conduct a competitive review of current bus driver wages and benefits and determine what compensation is necessary to recruit and retain qualified drivers.

The district should consider:

• Increased hourly pay
• Sign-on/hiring incentives
• Retention bonuses
• Additional compensation for covering vacant routes
• Additional compensation for unusually long or demanding routes
• Other incentives that make school bus driving a financially sustainable position

If we expect qualified adults to take responsibility for transporting our children, their compensation should reflect the importance and responsibility of that job.

2. Develop a concrete recruitment and retention plan.

Provide parents and the community with a clear plan for addressing the driver shortage, including measurable recruitment and retention goals and a timeline for improvement.

3. Conduct a comprehensive review of bus routes.

Evaluate current routes for:

• Number of students assigned to each bus
• Number of stops
• Route length
• Pickup and drop-off times
• Overlapping or inefficient routes
• Routes being combined because of staffing shortages
• Whether additional buses or drivers are needed

The goal should be to identify practical ways to reduce excessive ride times while maintaining safe transportation.

4. Establish reasonable expectations for student ride times.

Develop a reasonable target for the amount of time students should routinely spend on a school bus, with special consideration for younger children and students with disabilities, medical needs, accessibility needs, or other accommodations.

5. Address overcrowding.

Regularly evaluate bus capacity and student assignments to ensure buses are not routinely overloaded as a result of driver shortages.

6. Listen to the people behind the wheel.

District leadership should meet directly with transportation employees to identify:

• Why drivers leave
• What would encourage drivers to stay
• What challenges they experience on their routes
• What changes would make their jobs safer and more manageable
• What improvements they believe would make recruitment easier

Our bus drivers are on the front lines of this issue. Their experience should be part of the solution.

7. Improve communication and transparency with families.

Parents should receive clear and timely communication regarding:

• Transportation vacancies
• Significant route changes
• Delays
• Changes in pickup or drop-off times
• Routes being combined or reassigned
• Steps being taken to address excessive ride times

Families should not have to guess where their children are or why transportation is significantly delayed.

TRANSPORTATION IS NOT AN EXTRA

Every school day, we place something priceless in the hands of our bus drivers: our children.

A school bus driver is not simply someone who drives a vehicle. They are responsible for the safety and well-being of dozens of children at a time while navigating traffic, weather, road conditions, long routes, changing schedules, and the unique needs of students.

For many families, the school bus is the only practical way their children can get to and from school.

Transportation is not an extra service. It is an essential part of our children’s education.

Our children cannot fully benefit from their education if getting to and from school becomes an unreasonable part of their day.

And our drivers cannot be expected to solve a staffing shortage by continually taking on more students, longer routes, and longer hours.

IF WE WANT QUALIFIED PEOPLE TO DRIVE OUR CHILDREN, WE HAVE TO MAKE THE JOB WORTH DOING.

We understand that school districts operate within budgets. We understand that recruiting qualified CDL drivers is challenging. We understand that transportation is complicated.

But those challenges cannot continually be passed down to our children and the drivers responsible for them.

A shortage of drivers should not mean longer and longer bus rides for children.

A shortage of drivers should not mean unsustainable workloads for the drivers who remain.

And the people entrusted with transporting our children should be compensated in a way that reflects the responsibility they carry.

When we invest in our transportation employees, we invest in the safety, reliability, and stability of our schools.

Our children deserve to arrive at school ready to learn.

They deserve to get home in a reasonable amount of time.

Our bus drivers deserve fair compensation, manageable workloads, and the support necessary to do their jobs well.

And our community deserves a transportation system that works.

WE ARE ASKING THE BOARD TO ACT.

We respectfully ask the Lamar County School District Board of Education and Administration to:

1. Acknowledge the transportation staffing shortage.

2. Review bus driver compensation and recruitment/retention efforts.

3. Evaluate routes, capacity, and student ride times.

4. Establish measurable goals for reducing excessive ride times.

5. Communicate a concrete plan and timeline to parents and the community.

We are not asking for blame.

We are asking for accountability.

We are not asking for perfection.

We are asking for action.

Most importantly, we are asking Lamar County School District to recognize that getting our children safely to school and safely home is not a secondary responsibility. It is one of the district’s most fundamental responsibilities.

OUR CHILDREN ARE WORTH THE INVESTMENT.

OUR DRIVERS ARE WORTH THE INVESTMENT.

OUR TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM IS WORTH THE INVESTMENT.