District cites shortage of bus drivers, which has become a problem in districts across the nation
Dozens of Malibu parents are scrambling to find transportation to Webster Elementary, Malibu Middle School and Malibu High School now that the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District announced it cannot provide bus service for the upcoming school year. The announcement this week came as a shock to parents who rely on the home-to-school service, especially for those who live more than 10 miles from the campuses.
A SMMUSD notice states: “We are considering this to be a temporary situation as we continue to recruit to fill our critical bus driver shortage. Special education students will continue to have bus service as designated in their Individual Education Plan (IEP).
“We understand that this will be challenging for some of our families who rely on these four daily routes … Bus service for California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) athletics and field trips will continue to be supported as they were in the 2023-24 school year.”
During the 2023-24 school year, the district said it averaged only 10 student bus riders to Webster and 58 to Malibu Middle/High School.
“We sold nearly 130 bus passes for the 2023-24 school year, well below our historic bus pass sales,” according to the SMMUSD memo. “Many parents have moved to alternative forms of transportation for their students.”
One such parent who asked to keep her identity private told The Malibu Times that after using the bus for many years it became “increasingly unreliable for pick-up.” The family eventually started driving the kids to school from Big Rock, with a round trip taking “anywhere from 40 minutes to 2 hours with no way to know in advance on what end of that time range the trip will fall.” The parent decided to transfer her children to Santa Monica High School.
Another parent complained to The Malibu Times of chronically late service, saying his child received tardy notes regularly and that after complaining to the district, his complaints were passed off to various employees who never followed up.
Parents this newspaper heard from said they do not want to add to the traffic on Pacific Coast Highway by driving their children individually to school. Another said, “the bus service is vital to Malibu enrollment and attendance, especially at the middle and high school levels. It’s unacceptable that the district has decided to throw their hands in the air and give up on Malibu students.”
The school district claims it “ended this school year short five drivers, and we are aware that two additional will be leaving in the Fall. This is out of 22 drivers to be fully staffed serving all of SMMUSD, in particular our special education students. Santa Monica does not provide any bus service for general education students.”
The bus driver shortage is not limited to Malibu alone. It has actually been called a national crisis. According to CBS News, 51 percent of districts around the country report severe driver shortages. Two years ago, the network profiled the fourth-highest-ranking FBI official, turned company CEO, Mike Mason of Virginia. Mason, who retired at 63, heard his local school district was understaffed by 125 drivers. He took a $30,000 job as a school bus driver, making a fraction of his old income, and donates all the money to charity.
Malibu parents may be wishing for other such angels as Mason willing to step up. SMMUSD says it is recruiting with on-the-job training pay, salary increases, and benefits packages.
SMMUSD invited interested parents to attend a meeting July 10, at 11 a.m. at Webster Elementary School, 3602 Winter Canyon Road to discuss the bus issue.
Wade Major, president of Advocates for Malibu Public Schools (AMPS), was intending on using the service this year.He said, “Efforts at finding a solution are underway.”
The Malibu Times will cover the meeting. Interested parents may want to come prepared with ideas or to look for carpool families.