VERONA — Eric Bond, superintendent for Augusta County Schools, is trying to make the process of training and hiring bus drivers more streamlined.

The school division has 165 bus drivers to transport its approximately, 10,200 students across the county's 971 square miles. It's enough to get the routes covered, but the pool of substitute bus drivers is very shallow and when a driver is out sick it is challenging to get their route covered, Bond said.

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This leads to drivers doubling up on routes, and given the sprawl of the county, a double route can cost the driver and the students 30 to 45 minutes.

Bond has discussed the possibility of legislation to amend the code of Virginia that dictates what a person has to do to obtain their bus driver licensure. He's had informal discussions with local representatives — Del. Steve Landes, R-Weyers Cave, Del. Dickie Bell, R-Staunton, and Sen. Emmett Hanger, R-Mount Solon, about the possibility, but nothing has been decided.

"We'll have to have some follow-up conversations," Bond said.

To be a bus driver currently a person must obtain their commercial driver's license and then compete a separate training to get their bus driver's license. Whether or not they plan to use the commercial driver's license for anything besides driving a bus, they have to get it.

Bond wants to know if they can find "an alternative path" for those wanting to drive a school bus, which would encourage more people to do it and would lead to a larger pool of drivers.

Augusta County isn't the only school division that struggles to train and retain bus drivers. It's a constant struggle for school divisions to keep an adequate number of drivers on payroll. A change in legislation wouldn't just help Augusta County, but school divisions across the commonwealth, Bond said.

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