By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
The shortage of classroom subs and bus drivers continue to cause headaches for Bowling Green City Schools.
But Superintendent Francis Scruci reported Tuesday that the district may be seeing some relief on its bus driver roster – with one former driver returning, one person hired as a substitute driver, and one person being medically cleared to drive. The board of education on Tuesday also voted to hire eight people as trainees.
That puts the current roster at 14 full-time drivers, which is enough to handle the new two-mile radius routes without using office staff and mechanics to drive.
In order to return to offering bus transportation to students outside a one-mile radius, the district needs 20 drivers.
“We’re going back to the one-mile as soon as possible,” Scruci said, predicting that January would be the latest that would occur.
With more students walking to school, the district worked with city leaders and Bowling Green Police Division to create more crosswalks staffed by crossing guards.
The following crosswalks will have guards from 8:15 to 9:15 a.m. and then again from 3:15 to 4:15 p.m.:
- Conneaut Avenue and Haskins Road (same as last year)
- South College Drive and Scott Hamilton Avenue (same as last year)
- Sand Ridge Road and South Church Street (same as last year)
- Poe Road and Haskins Road (new this year)
- Napoleon Road near the 400 block (new this year)
- Gypsy Lane and Main Street (new this year)
- Gorrill Road and Mitchell Road (new this year)
Other staff shortages continue to plague the district. More paraprofessionals are needed to assist in classrooms. Paraprofessionals provide instructional, behavioral, and other support to students in and outside of the classroom. Paraprofessionals often work one-on-one with students who receive special education and related services.
Substitute teachers are also hard to come by, Scruci said. The Ohio Department of Education is continuing to allow districts to hire subs without teaching degrees.
“It’s becoming a common practice across the country to do this,” Scruci said. “It’s what we have to do.”
The ODE is recognizing the sub shortage and the projected teacher shortage soon to come, he said. This is the third year that school districts in Ohio have been permitted to hire people without bachelor degrees as subs. The extension of the provision for two more years is telling, Scruci said.
“That’s their signal to us that this is going to continue,” he said.
Bowling Green City Schools contracts with Rachel Wixey, which conducts background checks on prospective substitute teachers, said Dawn Dazell, human resources administrator for the school district.
Dazell said people with student teaching experience are always the district’s first choice for subs.
“We vet as well as we can,” she said. “But we can’t have a classroom unattended.”
Also at Tuesday’s meeting, Scruci gave an update on the air conditioning project which was expected to be completed prior to school starting.
“That did not happen,” due to supply chain issues, he said.
As it stands now, the air conditioning should be ready to go at Conneaut Elementary School by Labor Day weekend. The work at Kenwood Elementary and the high school will be completed later since those projects are still waiting on main panels for the air conditioning.
Scruci also talked about the first day of school this year being the first normal opening day since 2019, before COVID.
At the end of Tuesday’s meeting, the board went into executive session for personnel reasons. Board President Jill Carr said the executive session was necessary to address the fractured nature of the board. No action was taken after the executive session.
