BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
FLEMING ISLAND— Clay County Public Schools Superintendent David Broskie said the district will start the 2022-2023 school year with 10 bus driver vacancies.
“You probably all know (about) a bus driver shortage in the State of Florida,” he said during the Aug. 4 school board meeting. “There’s a little over 1,900 bus driver vacancies in the state. In Clay County, we have 10 student transportation vacancies; that simply means we don’t have enough bus drivers.”
The superintendent added that driver shortages are not limited to Clay County or school districts.
“Every industry that has people driving somewhere is missing people,” he said. “This is not an education-related issue. It’s not a Clay County-related issue. Everyone is experiencing a labor shortage when it comes to drivers.”
Broskie noted that even in years with no driver vacancies, during the first week of school, he typically receives more questions about student transportation than any other topic.
He said late buses and traffic congestion during the first week of school should not surprise parents and commuters.
“Clay county has about 218,000 people according to our last census,” he said. “We have a little better than 40,000 students in our school system. That means either one or two people are driving those children to school, or the bus is out there. This shouldn’t be a shock that traffic across the entire county will be slower on the first day of school and probably for a five to seven-day time period.”
