NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. — All school staff have taken on new responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, but a former Nassau County school bus driver said crowded school buses and additional responsibilities drove her out of the profession.
“It was a difficult time,” said former bus driver Jennifer Genovesi. “It was a challenging year.”
Nassau County School District had a mask mandate on buses last school year, but Genovesi said it was a struggle to enforce on her own.
“Our job is to get them safely to and from school, but being the mask police is something we can’t get a grip on,” Genovesi explained.
The Nassau County School District does not have a mask mandate for the coming school year, which is another reason Genovesi quit.
“We had a lot of drivers that wouldn’t drive because of the COVID,” Genovesi said.
Nassau County School District Department of Transportation told First Coast News, the district, along with the majority of the state, is experiencing a school bus driver shortage.
Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried weighed in on the issue Monday.
“Those school buses are jam-packed, we know that,” Fried said in a Zoom conference.
The Nassau County Schools Department of Transportation said it’s down about 16 drivers, and if those positions were filled, students could be dispersed to make more room in the buses.
At this point, the Department said it is nearly impossible to distance students on the buses.
The department said about 50 middle and high school students are assigned to each bus. On the elementary route, there are about 70 students per bus. The department says each bus has a capacity of 77 people.
“Even if you are opening up the windows, still everyone is on top of each other and that’s a concern,” Fried said.
“It’s a tough job and COVID didn’t make it any easier,” Genovesi said.
Although the district does not have a mask mandate, it does have special cleaning protocols of the buses such as sanitizing at the end of each day and requiring students to use hand sanitizer before entering the bus.
Drivers will receive training on sanitizing procedures.