By LINDA CHION KENNEY
School bus cameras, teacher and school bus driver shortages, and good news on the school grades front mark the start of the 2024-25 school year, as parents and kids gear up on supplies and information at back-to-school events throughout Hillsborough County.
New this year, in partnership with BusPatrol, is a school bus safety program to keep students safe as they enter and exit school buses. It involves exterior photo enforcement cameras, placed on stop-arm extenders that are activated as students get on and off their buses.
Linda Chion Kenney photos
Superintendent Van Ayres, at King Middle School, in a conference room adorned with the photos of past principals, including his mother, Nuri Ayres
According to school officials, every morning and afternoon the district transports roughly 78,000 students to and from school, with recent studies revealing that “stopped school buses are illegally passed over three times per bus per day.”
The cameras are designed to detect vehicles that illegally pass stopped school buses with their stop-arms deployed and red lights flashing. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office is set to review the footage to determine whether to issue a citation by mail. The ticket cost reportedly is $225 per incident.
Beginning August 12, the first day of school, the school district is launching a 30-day public awareness campaign and warning period to familiarize motorists with the stop-arm cameras. The program is set to officially go live Sept. 12.
According to Superintendent Van Ayres, the school district will then start collecting fines, and, in turn, pay a percentage back to BusPatrol to pay for the installed cameras. Reportedly there was no upfront charge to install the cameras. Leftover money will be used by the school district’s transportation office to help recruit and retain school bus drivers.
Overall, the district operates roughly 1,000 school buses daily and recently hired 100 school bus drivers. Still, the district is short 118 drivers, which means some drivers need to run two routes daily, which, in turn, leads to late entries for students.
Ayres said the push is on to “keep the wheels of education rolling,” as noted on the school district’s transportation services page.
Starting pay for bus drivers is $18.65 per hour, with a guaranteed seven-hour day, department uniforms, ongoing training, summer work available and extra opportunities with field trips. Bus driver requirements include five years of driving experience, no DUI’s, a valid Florida Driver’s License and the ability to pass a background test, drug test and Department of Transportation physical.
Pressing as well is the teacher shortage that amounts to 500 openings at the start of the school year.
“That’s the challenge of running a large school district,” Ayres said. “We have some schools that have one or two openings, and I have others that have eight. I’ll have some schools that have no openings, and then they have eight.”
With recruitment ongoing, and the hope that an ad valorem tax referendum in November will net $177 million to give all teachers a $6,000 pay supplement, the push is on to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers. The referendum addresses as well supplements for staff and administrators, and a $3,000 supplement for support personnel, including bus drivers and lunchroom workers.
For now, Ayres is preparing for teacher shortages at certain schools as the new year begins. For some schools the need will be light or non-existent. In other schools, the challenge will be more formidable. Beth Shields Middle School, for example, is set to open with 15 teacher openings, in a high-growth area that has caused enrollment to swell to some 2,000 students.
Ayres said the district has a “critical vacancy model,” which involves raising class sizes as needed to adjust for teacher shortages. “You raise class sizes in those particular schools, to get a highly effective teacher in front of them,” Ayres said. “If I’ve got a class of 20 students, with no teachers, I’m going to take those students and spread them out among highly qualified teachers.”
Safety and training supervisor Carlos Hernandez, next to a school bus outfitted with BusPatrol stop-arm photo enforcement cameras
Issues such as these keep Ayres up a night, but one thing that brings a lilt to his step is the recent release of 2024 school grades.
“I knew we were going to see tremendous growth, but I didn’t expect it in year one,” Ayres said. According to school officials, the district moved from 33 schools graded D or F, to no schools graded F and only nine schools graded D. Included in the mix are Eisenhower, Sligh and Shields middle schools, which all improved from a D to a C. Moreover, East Bay in Gibsonton and Spoto in Riverview were among the four high schools that improved from a C to a B. The others were Hillsborough High and Leto High in Tampa.
“Now we can pinpoint and target” to bring all schools up to grade, Ayres said.
Visit www.hillsboroughcountyschools.org/ for more on school district news.