Caddo Schools Transportation Director Retires Amid Bus Delay Crisis
Caddo Parish Public Schools have been struggling with keeping up with bus transportation of students in Shreveport and Caddo Parish during this new school year. And now we know Transportation Director Jeff Roberts is out. He was placed on leave and decided to retire.
Roberts was appointed as director back in 2019. He has been dealing with a shortage of bus drivers. But Superintendent Keith Burton says there has also been a communication problem and that needs to be fixed as soon as possible.
Burton tells KEEL News he "made the decision that I thought was necessary at the time to ensure that we had the appropriate leadership and oversight of the transportation department. Since then, he has chosen to retire."
Burton says "Our focus now is just moving the department forward and really improving the service for our students and families. We have made this priority 1."
Burton says the first problem they are dealing with is a shortage of drivers and he is working to solve that by aggressively recruiting drivers and bumping up pay. But there is also another problem.
Burton says he has bumped bus driver pay up from $67 dollars a day to $100 dollars a day. And he says any driver that takes an extra route on top of a regular route will get another $25 dollars.
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Anthony McLain is taking over at interim leader of the department. He has been tasked with evaluating route structures, optimizing software applications, and managing day-to-day operations while the board searches for a permanent director.
During these first few weeks of school, some routes have been combines and this has resulted in longer bus ride times for students. Parents have expressed frustration about these problems. But Burton is confident his team will find the answers. He tells KEEL News:
Parents are already seeing a difference. He says the sheer number of calls and complaints has dropped tremendously. I want it to go from being a problem to being something we're proud of withing 90 days.
The parish is actively holding recruitment drives, offering incentives to attract new drivers, and asking retired drivers to come back to help solve the problem.
