Wheels keep turning in Brookings School District, but more help needed

School board hears about bus drivers, other transportation issues for district

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BROOKINGS – The Brookings School District is managing to keep up with its transportation services despite a shortage of bus drivers, but more help is still needed.

That was the message from Nate Loehr, the school district’s director of transportation services and buildings and grounds, to the Brookings School Board at its Sept. 26 workshop meeting.

Loehr reported that individuals have been willing to offer a day or two a month to help alleviate some of the strain on the transportation staff. However, the district is still seeking to hire up to four drivers, he said last week.

“(More drivers) may give us the opportunity to reinstate some of the in-district transfers that we used to have within the district. And that would be a real benefit to our families, and to our students obviously,” Superintendent Klint Willert said in an interview with the Register following the meeting. “We just want to promote that this is a great opportunity. We have some flexibility before school and after school, so it’s not a huge time commitment.” 

Willert recommends the position to anyone working part time looking to add a few more hours to their workday, noting that the job is flexible and follows the school calendar. 

According to Loehr, the district employs 21 bus drivers who are able to drive for activities and field trips. Of those 21, a dozen are route drivers and unable to drive Monday through Friday without cancelling their out-of-town route. Of the remaining nine drivers, most of them are full-time employees at other businesses and have limited flexibility for weekday events, which consist of 80% of the district’s activities.

The school district is currently using an online Class A driver’s license course to certify drivers, which costs $200 per person doing the training, and in-house, behind-the-wheel training. 

“I just wanted to explain to people that … these are all people who have said, ‘Hey, on the second Tuesday of every month, I’m free ….’ Which is fine, you know. We’ve been able to jump in and train those people, and it’s still worth it to us to have those people on our roster and to be a part of our team,” Loehr said.

With an average of 12 buses going out per week for student activities, five are sent out for field trips, and 11 Suburbans and other small vehicles are used. Currently there are nine out-of-town routes that are available with the amount of drivers the district has. The district transports about 500 rural-route learners with 55 students per bus. Additionally, about 300 Boys & Girls Club riders are transported by district buses. 

Loehr discussed the possibility of the district extending its bus routes to the northwest and northeast areas of Brookings. 

“This will come down again to hiring additional drivers,” Loehr said, “but it is something that we’re thinking about with the community.”

Changing fleet

The district’s fleet has seen some changes recently, including acquiring a 14-passenger coach this past summer. There are also four propane-powered buses in the fleet, which are especially useful in the winter months when the diesel buses don’t start as easily. However, they do not have the range diesel buses do.

Loehr hopes the district will also acquire a 57-passenger Freightliner bus, which would alleviate the need to use up to three drivers to transport students in a 48-passenger bus and two Suburbans. One bus in the fleet is on a lease that is ending soon, which Loehr hopes the district will be able to keep as well. 

Some of the buses are beginning to age, reaching over 110,000 miles and struggling with breakdowns. Looking into the future, Loehr discussed the possibility of the district utilizing electric buses.

“It is something that’s on our radar, and I think it’s a great alternative and we’ll see what happens in the future with that,” Loehr said, further explaining that the electric buses being built now would not be available for up to three years and would not have the amount of charge capacity the district would likely need.

“We’ve started kicking those tires,” Willert said. “We’re one of those districts that has led the path in terms of using some alternative energy sources …. We have a couple propane buses on our fleet, and that was a little outside the norm of thinking of other school districts at the time, and now there have been more districts that have acquired propane buses. We just see that as being prudent and judicious in terms of what resources are available and how we access them.”

Transportation facility

The school district had previously been working with the Brookings Area Transit Authority to pursue a shared transportation facility to house buses and other vehicles. 

However, BATA did not receive grant funds it was seeking. 

“We have basically hit the pause button on any shared transportation facility at this point in time. We’re still open to a shared facility. However, if it’s not going to be in the cards down the road, we’re going to have to look into building our own facility just to move forward,” said Willert, who described the school district’s current transportation facility as more of a lean-to than a building. “That becomes really challenging when you think about wintertime operations,” he continued, citing comments from Lohr’s presentation about slow or no-starts during previous winter seasons when it comes to using diesel buses. 

“We’ll still keep the door open to a shared facility, but if that door is not able to be walked through because BATA doesn’t have the resources or the capacity to move forward, we’re going to have to start looking at our own alternatives,” Willert said.

Transportation, buildings

At the board meeting, Willert discussed the possibility of breaking apart the duties Loehr handles as director of both transportation services and buildings and grounds. 

In an interview, Willert added that managing a fleet of buses and vehicles, transportation employees, managing buildings and campuses, providing leadership for custodial staff, and acquisitioning supplies for the district is a large scope of duties to handle.

“We really found out that, after the storms this summer that that was an area that we had some exposure. (Loehr) was finding himself torn between two things that needed a lot of attention,” Willert said. “The transportation side of things certainly is challenging right now when you’re trying to find employees, and he’s finding himself on a bus numerous times, and then that takes away from the ability to do some of the buildings and grounds things that we’d like him to do. I don’t know if that’s a one-year, or two- or three-year plan, but I wanted the board to be aware that that’s something we have to think about when we think long term about our campuses and our district as a whole as we continue to grow and experience the same growth as our community does.”

Contact Alison Simon at asimon@brookingsregister.com.