Officials and union representatives with Reynoldsburg schools say bus drivers weren't playing hooky Monday morning when a fourth of them called in sick and forced the cancellation of classes districtwide.



Illness and a shortage of substitute drivers is to blame, they said.



But after speculation on social media suggested otherwise, Superintendent Melvin Brown issued a statement to clear the air.



"We have met with staff and I can confirm that this was not an 'organized event' as alluded to on social media," Brown said. "We had 14 of our 52 drivers who were not able to come to work today for completely legitimate reasons and they, and all our drivers, have our full support.

Rob Kocher, president of the Reynoldsburg School Support Association, a union that represents bus drivers and other non-teaching employees, agreed with Brown. The district and association are in the process of renegotiating a contract that expired June 30.

Classes were expected to resume Tuesday.

All buses were being disinfected as a precaution, Brown said.

Buses are on a tiered schedule, meaning one driver might be responsible for as many as four routes in a single day, he said.

Like many districts in central Ohio and across the United States, Reynoldsburg has struggled to recruit and hire enough substitute drivers, spokeswoman Valerie Wunder said.

It only has seven right now, she said. Without enough substitute drivers, students would have waited at bus stops for more than in hour in some cases, Brown said. Cancellation was necessary "for the sake of student safety," she said.

In a 2016 survey conducted by the National Association for Pupil Transportation, 56 percent of respondents indicated their driver shortage is "getting much worse." More than half of that 56 percent said the situation is "severe" or "desperate" for their company or school district.

Of surveyed bus drivers, 88 percent said pay was a major factor in recruitment and retention. In Reynoldsburg, a first-year bus driver was paid $16.74 an hour in 2015, with a 3 percent increase in 2016 and 2017, according to the pay scale in the association's recently expired contract.

Dispatch reporter Patrick Cooley contributed to this report.

awidmanneese@dispatch.com

@AlissaWidman



