Some Macon County parents are struggling to get their children to school with the school system down five drivers for its bus routes.
Just days before school started on Aug. 25, Macon County Schools was short drivers for seven bus routes. A local parent stepped up to fill one vacancy. Many parents struggle with the logistical challenge of getting kids to school – often multiple kids to different schools. Adding to the concerns, parents often receive messages with little notice when bus routes are not running.
Macon County Schools Human Resources Director Todd Gibbs said approximately 150 students were affected by the shortage, and three morning and two afternoon routes were still missing drivers. Between teachers, custodians and teacher assistants, 26 school personnel also work as bus drivers.
Tiffany Birchum said she and her husband work odd hours and with only one family car the morning drive has been made more difficult as they ferry their two children to Cartoogechaye Elementary and Mountain View Intermediate.
“It’s a lot right now,” she said. “We finally managed to get a system to take them to school, but so many families depend on the buses.”
Birchum is a Franklin native and Franklin High School graduate; she rode the bus every day with her brother until she was old enough to drive. Her grandfather drove the bus. Birchum said some families, especially those who do not have secure access to transportation, will struggle more to get kids to school on time.
If a family doesn’t have a car and the buses aren’t running, kids could accumulate tardies and absences, which reflects on the parents for something outside of their control.
Birchum said bus drivers need to be treated better and the school system needs to update their pay and benefits to better attract new drivers. She is encouraging others to attend the upcoming Sept. 22 Board of Education meeting.
Respondents on a Franklin Press Facebook post echoed concerns that drivers do not receive pay consistent with the unusual hours or reflective of the importance of safely transporting children. Cody Weller and Carla Whitley said the pay and benefits were not good enough and must be improved. Danielle Sewell encouraged commenters to attend the September meeting. Other respondents complained that many children are actively disruptive on bus rides, adding to the difficulty of an already underpaid position. Gibbs said policies are in place to “establish proper student behavior” but “some students still do not stay in their seats on a bus, or they become loud and distracting to the driver, or they use foul language.”
“Driving a bus is a difficult yet rewarding endeavor. Drivers must pay attention to the students behind them, all the while dodging distracted drivers, and driving within the rules of the roads,” Gibbs said.
Andrea Tallent said the increase in the number of parents driving kids to school has caused a traffic jam at Franklin High, blocking transit on Wayah Street. She said traffic at Macon Middle School and Mountain View Intermediate is comparably bad.
Joanie Knight said she has to leave work “more than an hour before my shift ends,” to pick up her kids and worries her boss will fire her if the trend continues.
Bus 163 appears to be facing some unusual trouble. The route has not had a consistent driver for at least three years and has not run reliably in that time. For the week of Sept. 1, the school system notified parents that the bus would not run in the mornings or afternoons. Gibbs said he is unaware of any specific difficulty for that route and that he has driven it before without issue.
Going for years without the support of school transportation has left many parents feeling like the school board simply doesn’t care about drivers, students or parents.
“This conversation feels like déjà vu to me. My children are supposed to ride Bus 163 from Holly Haven apartments. That has not been the case for about four years,” said Danielle Sewell. “My neighbors and I have struggled and sacrificed to and from school for years. I have to drop off three kids at three schools … I had to resume after-school care for my youngest, which is an expense I can no longer afford, but have no choice because she can’t simply ride the bus home … The Board [of Education] knows the issues. They know the drivers need higher pay, benefits and support. The message in their lack of action is clear: they simply do not care.”
Bus drivers at Macon County Schools are part-time employees that start out earning $16.70 per hour and after 20 years of experience will earn no more than $19.46 per hour, according to Gibbs. No salary increases are given after 20 years. In 2022, the General Assembly established a $15 per hour minimum wage for public school employees.
Some community members have suggested hiring drivers full-time to incentivize reliable hires. Gibbs said the barrier to this option is the cost, with health insurance alone jumping from $8,095 to $8,904 per employee per year in 2026 (for full-time employees).
“School systems in North Carolina do not have the ability to raise/establish taxes to fund ourselves,” Gibbs said. “We are reliant on the state, and county, to provide the funds to operate, including running buses and paying drivers.”
The system is facing a $1.7 million budget shortfall for the coming fiscal year, according to MCS financial officer Alayna Ledford.
Bus drivers are required to obtain a commercial driver’s license (CDL) and must be at least 21 years of age. There is no maximum age as long as drivers can continue to pass a CDL physical every two years.
Back in the driver’s seat
Amelia Boggus stepped up to serve as a bus driver after discovering that her three children might not have a ride to school – on the condition that the schedule doesn’t interfere with her full-time job at the hospital.
Boggus got her bus license in 2024 when looking for opportunities to earn a little extra money while serving as a substitute teacher. However, after getting the license she couldn’t justify the lack of pay and benefits with her personal expenses. Without reliable hours, decent pay and benefits, the work just wasn’t worth it.
“It’s not a guarantee that you’re going to have work all the time; it’s not really a permanent thing either,” Boggus said.
This led to Boggus working full-time at the hospital, but the challenge of getting three children to three different schools (East Franklin Elementary, Mountain View Intermediate and Franklin High) ended up calling her back as a bus driver as a second job while she stayed on at the hospital.
“My neighbor actually called me freaking out, because her kids ride the same bus, and they didn’t have a driver. Her job was going to interfere … so I was like, ‘I’ll do it,’” Boggus said. “I could do it in the long term if they will work around my schedule [at the hospital] with my full-time pay with benefits. I can’t give that up for what is, honestly, really nothing. I have three kids, so there’s no way I could ever even imagine doing that and just being a bus driver.”
So far, Boggus said she has gotten help from transportation director Todd Gibbs and East Franklin Elementary School Principal Crystal Parker, who have worked to make sure her bus schedule doesn’t interfere with her full-time job.
“It’s not bad,” she said, “It’s just, there’s no benefits, the pay is not worth anything.”