BUFFALO, N.Y. — School districts across Western New York are already hiring school bus aides and drivers for the next school year. They're trying to get ahead of the game so they aren't faced with staffing shortages.
It's the problem bus companies and school districts across the country are facing.
The Buffalo Public School District is being proactive by having a hiring event for bus aides this Saturday. They need to hire more than one hundred people and pay starts at $15 an hour.
The goal is to have a bus aide on every bus route this year.
Since these are civil service positions, you do have to live in the City of Buffalo and bring documents proving it with you.
"Some of the challenges that we faced over the years with trying to identify appropriate bus aides has been that one of the requirements is that you need to be a City of Buffalo resident. So with that being said, as we go out and market and we outreach to the community about the bus aide opportunities, we tell them right from the beginning that you must be a City of Buffalo resident in order to be eligible to apply, interview, and get on-boarded and get on our buses," says Buffalo Public Schools Chief of Human Resources Tami Hollie-McGee.
There is flexibility in the hours with a morning and an afternoon shift. You can do one or both.
The bus company, First Student, hires the bus drivers for the district. 2 On Your Side reached out to them to do an interview, and have not heard back. The district told us it is looking to hire more than one-hundred bus drivers for the next school year for Buffalo Public Schools.
"Pre-COVID, there wasn't always a bus aide on every bus, but after COVID, we noticed that there was a significant number of buses that did not have bus aides. People were not returning back to the workforce quite as quickly as we had hoped. So, therefore, we had to start recruiting and looking for individuals outside of our current database of bus aides. But we always wanted and wished to have a bus aide on every bus," said Tami Hollie-McGee.
But she says now they are closing that gap.
There several are items and documents you have to bring with you to the bus aide hiring event on Saturday at the Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts:
- Photo ID such as your NY State license
- Social Security Card OR Birth Certificate
- 3 Proofs of residency in the City of Buffalo
- $10.00 Money Order only (cannot accept CASH payment)
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