“We used to be kids too,” said Javier Tatham, one of the drivers in training who signed up to work during the Anchorage School District’s severe bus driver shortage. “Now it’s our turn to help out the community.”
Lara Giles teaches a bus driver training class at the Anchorage School District's transportation headquarters on August 24, 2022.
for weeks at a time. Ahead of the school year, the district was short about 70 drivers, and officials recently said they’ll have 50 of the drivers needed on the road by the end of September.a longtime bus driver and trainer with the district.“People are here because they’ve been called to serve,” she said.
Tonya Routier signed up to train because she likes to work with kids. They’re innocently honest and put a positive spin on things from the start of the day, she said. Tatham’s mom told him about the bus driver shortage. He’d been working as a chef on the North Slope since 2012, but when he heard about the shortage, he felt he had to apply.Similarly, Elia Faupula heard about the shortage from his father-in-law. He said he liked the responsibility of the bus driver job.
Lara Giles teaches a bus driver training class at the Anchorage School District's transportation headquarters on August 24, 2022. “I want to be that impressionable on children where a million years from childhood, you remember who they are,” she said.
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