CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Riviera ISD is one of many school districts across the Coastal Bend that's dealing with a bus driver shortage. Their possible solution is offering teachers within the district a one-time stipend worth hundreds of dollars for those who get their Commercial Drivers License (CDL).
The district only has three drivers that are used everyday, but that's not enough. One of those drivers, Ms. Natalie, wanted to step in and help her community, and has now been driving in Riviera for six years. She drives an hour and a half route each morning and again in the afternoon, but her job doesn’t stop there.
"Any sport we drive, it takes us anywhere from five to six hours depending on what game it is and where we’re going," Ms. Natalie said.
That's why Riviera ISD is offering teachers within the district $750 to get their CDL by December and $500 to get it by May. Teachers will also get paid $18.71 an hour while driving, on top of the stipend.
Community members who are interested in helping out will receive the $18.71 hourly wage. Both teachers and community members can choose in which way they want to help.
The district will also pay for the CDL tests for those willing to help.
"We want to make things as easy as possible for our staff. We want to let our community know that the hours are flexible. There's some who might just want to drive a morning route and come in for two hours and go about their day. Or someone can want to drive both morning and afternoon and even drive to games and get free admission for that," Riviera ISD Interim Superintendent Dr. Andi Kuyatt said.
Dr. Kuyatt has even filled in herself a few times because of the districts bus driver shortage. When the district is in dire need of help, they turn to substitute drivers in town with their CDL license and neighboring school districts for help.
The CDL test requires 20 hours of bus driving training that's split up into three consecutive Saturdays and knowledge of every part of the bus to make sure their students are in good hands.
"It's a lot of time and it's a lot of studying. The normal person would need to study quite a bit, I know I did," Kuyatt said.
The district said interested teachers will not be taken out of class to drive bus routes, keeping students learning the priority. They hope different club sponsors, coaches and teachers will help each other out outside of their own sport/event season.
Riviera ISD wants to hire four drivers by December and four more by May to put the district in a comfortable spot moving forward.
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