GUILDERLAND — Craig Lipps, who became the director of transportation for the Guilderland schools last February, says buses are good for the environment, and are the safest way to transport students.

He also wants to do away with what he calls an industry-wide stigma for drivers and sees himself as an example of being able to progress.

On Oct. 22, he highlighted for the school board some of the district’s new safety initiatives. His department has a new Safety Training Team, which, among other duties, works on certifying new drivers.

Also new GPS units were installed on all buses, replaced at no cost to the district, Lipps told the board.

“They are faster, they are quicker and they are more accurate …,” he said. “We’re able to actually track driver behaviors and more safety analytics.”

The devices track “vehicle health,” Lipps said. “We have had a couple of breakdowns and we have also been able to thwart about three or four other breakdowns because the system notified us,” he said.

Guilderland has also adopted a new routing system, made by Transfinder.

“It’s not just routing anymore,” said Lipps. “We’re able to make sure the routes are safe, the bus stops are safe, the students are accounted for as well as the employees and better communication tools with the parents and guardians as well.”

In another month or so, he said, parents will receive notifications on when a school bus is coming to a bus stop and when the bus has left the stop.

“One out of three students in the U.S. is routed on the Transfinder system,” said Lipps, “and it is a local company. The owner of the company is a resident here in Guilderland who grew up, graduated from Guilderland and they serve over 2,000 school districts across the country.”

BusPatrol

In 2023, Guilderland joined a county-wide BusPatrol program in which the company outfits buses with cameras to have drivers ticketed if they pass a stopped bus. Sixty percent of the fine money goes to BusPatrol and 40 percent to Albany County.

“I get at least two phone calls a week. People got a ticket …and they have all kinds of excuses but it’s out of our hands,” said Lipps.

During the last school year, 3,027 violations were issued for drivers illegally passing stopped Guilderland school buses. “It’s approximately 17 a day,” said Lipps, reiterating, “Yeah, 17 a day.”

Nearly a third of the violations occur during morning pickups and more than two-thirds occur during afternoon drop-offs.

Most of the violations in Guilderland last year occurred on Thursday afternoons, with 28 percent between 3 and 4 p.m. Six percent of the tickets went to out-of-state drivers, Lipps reported.

Nine of the top 10 locations for violations are “down by Crossgates,” Lipps said, between 1600 and 2400 Western Ave.

“So please keep an eye out,” Lipps urged. “Watch for those red lights and those stop signs because there’s kids nearby. I promise you.”

By Oct. 14 of this school year, 474 more tickets had been issued, he said.

Driver shortage

“As everybody knows, we need drivers,” said Lipps.

According to research by the Economic Policy Institute, reported by the National Education Association, school bus driver employment continues to be far below pre-pandemic levels. There were approximately 192,400 bus drivers working in K–12 schools in September 2023, down about 15 percent from September 2019.

Although the pandemic emergency has ended, the Economic Policy Institute report found that school bus drivers are still sharply affected by the pandemic’s fallout. School bus drivers tend to be significantly older than the typical worker and their wages are far lower than most other workers, according to the institute’s analysis of Current Population Survey microdata.  

In 2021, over 72 percent of state and local government school bus drivers were age 50 and older, compared with 38 percent of state and local government employees and 31 percent of private-sector workers, the report found. The age makeup of the school bus driver workforce made them more vulnerable to the effects of COVID, contributing to workers leaving the profession and being reluctant to return.

Nationally, roughly half of school children rely on bus services to get to school. Interrupted services and instability can disrupt learning time and contribute to absenteeism, the Economic Policy Institute reported. 

“You know, a lot of people think that there’s no future in school busing,” Lipps told the board. “Unfortunately, that’s a stigma that comes with our industry, our part of education. But the reality is, I started out as a school bus driver in 1999, so now I’m standing in front of y’all and there’s a lot of young people that do the same thing and follow suit.”

Then and now

As Guilderland, like districts across the state, will be required to move to emission-free buses, Lipps made a pitch for the environmental worth of even conventional buses.

“Every school bus replaces approximately 36 vehicles on the road bringing kids to school,” he said. “So, principals, picture your parking lots with no school buses — it would be jam packed, right out to the streets.”

Guilderland students were first transported by the Bohl Brothers Bus Company, located at the corner of Route 20 and Foundry Road, to schools in Guilderland, Schenectady, Albany, Voorheesville, and Rotterdam, Lipps said.

In 1950, Guilderland purchased its first five buses — for a total of $31,000. Four years later, the district built its first bus garage, which now serves as a maintenance building.

The current price of a single conventional bus is over $160,000. An electric bus costs in the neighborhood of $430,000 but the state has offered incentives to reduce that cost to districts. 

Last May, Guilderland voters approved the purchase of two electric buses, which ultimately will cost taxpayers nothing, so the district can learn to work with them.

Currently, Guilderland operates 68 bus routes with six routes contracted out to two bus companies.

“Approximately 4,800 of our students ride our buses,” said Lipps; service is provided to 53 schools.

Students board at 4,556 bus stops. Altogether, more than 5,500 miles are traveled each day for a total of 1,066,046 miles during the last school year, Lipps calculated.

Guilderland is currently purchasing Blue Bird buses, Lipps said, noting safety features like backup cameras, electronic stability control that helps drivers prevent collisions, and “hill-hold” so buses don’t roll backwards, he said.

And the seats for students, he said, “are a little cushy.”

Guilderland’s new electric buses are by Blue Bird, Lipps said, adding, “They’ve been leading the way in the electric school bus transition.”

Lipps concluded, “After all is said and done, the safest way back and forth to school for these guys is on the school bus. The numbers are scary for the kids that don’t make it to school with their parents or with their friends or with babysitters that aren’t in a school bus.

“Last year, there were no fatalities related to school transportation industry-wide, which is remarkable. The number of students that didn’t make it to school was upward of 1,000 in cars.

“So the school bus, it is important and it is challenging right now because we’re short drivers. And the current team we have here in Guilderland is excellent. They’re actually really awesome. And, when you see them, wave to them, thank them randomly.”