Tewksbury school transportation still strained; one bus eliminated as shortage continues
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Summary
The district reported ongoing school-bus driver shortages, consolidated routes to remove one bus from service, mandated safety evacuations next week and upcoming contract bids for buses and vans.
Tewksbury School Committee on Oct. 15 received an update from the district transportation lead on bus safety training, driver shortages and capital planning ahead of the 2026 budget cycle.
Transportation lead reported that next week the district will run state-mandated front-door and rear-door bus evacuations at each school and related classroom safety instruction as part of National School Bus Safety Week. Those drills occur weather permitting and are designed to give students and drivers hands-on practice for emergency evacuations.
The district continues to experience a shortage of regular drivers. "The bus company has been pulling in charter drivers, when they can, filling so holes in with their office personnel, to kinda get drivers in seats, but, it still continues to be a problem," the transportation lead said. To mitigate operational gaps the district and its contractor consolidated routes and reduced the active bus fleet by one (from 23 buses to 22), the update said.
The committee was told the district plans to issue a request for proposals in December or January for in-district vehicles (buses and vans), since the contract expires at the end of the year. The district noted it typically achieves better pricing when it bids buses and vans together and that it will again explore regional partnerships for out-of-district routes with neighboring towns.
On facility work, staff reported progress on classroom phone projects at the Doing and Heath Brook schools, and said the LGI 1 room is awaiting carpet delivery that staff expect will complete the room. The transportation lead said recent wiring and cabling work should permit classroom phone service to be implemented more economically than earlier outside-vendor estimates.
Committee members acknowledged the regional nature of the driver shortage and asked about continued route consolidation and whether surveying families about bus use could create efficiency gains. Staff said they already remove "dead" stops when no students use them and coordinate with the contractor to rebalance routes when needed.
No new policy was adopted. Staff said they'll return with updates during the contract procurement work and with a timetable for the phone and LGI 1 projects.