GREECE, N.Y. — The Greece Central School District Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday night in favor of recommendations aimed at resolving transportation delays.

The district is increasing the distances students can walk to school to up to a mile and a half.

The district says the three main challenges are persistent bus driver shortages, the volume of requests for student bus transportation, and the number of schools and programs.

“Buses are still late. If we can’t get to our kids, they miss school,” said Jennifer Baker, whose kids attend the Greece school district.

Baker says the bus delays have been going on since January and are having a negative impact on her kids getting to school on time.

David Richardson, the executive director of student operations for the Greece district, says everyone is going to feel the pinch.

“But when you are transporting 10,000 students to 97 schools and programs every day and you don’t have the staffing to do it, something’s gotta give,” Richardson said.

The district is transporting 10,000 students with over 60 bus routes and only 130 bus drivers. That’s down 30 drivers since 2019.

To address these challenges, the district hired an outside company to conduct a transportation efficiency study. A proposal, approved Tuesday, modifies the walking distances to a student’s bus stop to match the walking distances to school for each grade. There will be an increase in the distance to combat the driver shortage.

“It’s non-realistic for high school students. If you want a child to walk a mile and a half, it’s an hour walk,” Baker said.

“It allows us not to have to go far deep into tracks — it allows us maybe instead of making 18 stops on a bus route, maybe we are doing 12,” Richardson explained.

Richardson says he understands the frustration parents are feeling and that it pulls at his heart strings.

“A lot of the school districts are saying they are short-staffed and I can completely understand. I work in a field where we are short-staffed all the time. But when you are short-staffed, you got to find a way to make it work,” Baker said.

He said, “The well is dry and desperate times call for desperate measures.”

The Greece Central School District Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday night in favor of recommendations aimed at resolving transportation delays.

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