- May 18, 2025
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As a child, Jamie Warrington lived across the street from a high school, which happened to also be the site of the local bus facility. On his sick days, he spent his free time sitting on the back of his couch looking through a big bay window, watching as the buses drove in and out for their runs.
“I've had a rather bizarre obsession with school buses since being a little tyke,” Warrington said. “There's something about them that I found to be fascinating.”
Warrington, now the School District of Manatee County's director of transportation services, has worked in school transportation for 31 years. He began as a bus driver and worked his way up, here for the last three years in his current role. With 93 active bus drivers hired for 95 routes, a bus driver shortage is currently a struggle for the department.
“It's a very difficult job to do, and not for the faint of heart,” Warrington said.
Warrington said the number of drivers available varies from week to week because of leaves of absence and vacations. He also said some drivers are set for retirement at the end of the school year, so the need for new drivers will be even greater for the coming school year. And then there are ever-present sick days.
“We certainly don't want a driver coming to work congested and cloudy and not being able to focus 100% on the task at hand,” Warrington said.
Christian Link, a bus driver at Manatee schools for three and a half years, said because of the shortage, they’ve had to get real with coverages, figuring out who can carry what extra loads and when and where.
“I'm just gonna keep on driving. The more I can drive, the happier I am,” Link said. “The less drivers we have, the more people have to work to make up the coverage, and the more stress that builds on everyone else. Unfortunately, that just becomes a bit of a cycle, until we get more good trainees.”
Warrington said they have had to cover as many as 18 routes at once that didn’t have a driver. The majority of the office staff used to be bus drivers as they tend to be promoted from within the department. A lot of them still maintain their CDL certifications, so they have been sent out to help cover when needed.
The summer is hiring season for bus drivers, but they hire all year-round. Warrington said training is offered every two weeks, and if they have even one applicant they will do it as there is that critical of a need.
At every class, Warrington asks the new employees “what do you think is the most important quality for a school bus driver or bus attendant to be successful?” Warrington has heard all sorts of answers regarding safety and communication, but is always looking for one specific answer.
“If you don't have a tolerance for children, this is definitely the wrong line of work,” Warrington said. Link said if you don’t like kids, you can go drive a cement truck.
Warrington said there are no bad children, they are sometimes just misguided. The drivers may not know what the children endure in their personal lives.
“You know something is causing them to act that way, and it's part of our job to try to maneuver that, figure that out, and to try to work with it, while still trying to do the mission of getting the kids to school safely, quickly and efficiently as possible.”
Warrington said a lot of people hesitate to become a bus driver for fear of how big the buses are and how they differ from cars.
“They don't realize that it's automatic transmission, it's power steering and air brakes and it's just like driving your car. It's just bigger,” Warrington said. “I've always joked with my wife that I can park a school bus much better than I can park a regular car.”
Along with the drivers, every bus has an attendant to help watch over the kids and make sure everyone is safe and behaving. Royale Bouie has been working as a bus attendant for three years and would get off and on at every stop to make sure the kids got on the bus who needed to. Attendants also help with tasks such as making sure everyone is buckled in and helping secure students in wheelchairs.
Twelve bus attendants are in some stage of the process of upgrading to being a bus driver. Bouie was hesitant at first and thought that driving wasn’t for her, but she is studying and training to get her CDL to become a driver.
“I tell them all the time, I'm not going back. No attending,” Bouie said. “Nothing wrong with the kids, nothing wrong with being the attendant but I'm dedicated to it, and I'm going to set my mind to it.”
Link greatly enjoys driving the bus and described it as his unexpected dream job, despite the struggle of driving around the other drivers on the road.
“I used to live in St Augustine, lived there 10 years,” Link said. “I can count on one hand how many times I used my horn when I was there. I broke that within my first month down here.”
Link said the best feeling in the world is when the kids and parents come up to him every day.
“I had one girl who never said a word, nothing, but I told her 'Good Morning' every day,” Link said. “I told her 'Good Morning' in about April and she finally said, 'thank you,' or 'Good Morning' back.”
He has received gifts from the families, including lumpia which is a traditional dish from the Phillipines.
“Once they start liking you enough that they're bringing you treats and presents, it's like I am doing something right,” Link said.
Warrington said that being a bus driver is a thankless job that isn’t looked upon highly and isn’t compensated to match the responsibility that they take on. At the school board meeting on April 29, the starting wage for bus drivers was approved to be raised from $19.57 an hour to $23.06 per hour.
Warrington said most of the people who come and work for the school district don't do it for the money, but do it for the students.
“Our team of drivers in attendance here are phenomenal. They're here to take care of our kids,” Warrington said. “They do the best that they can with what they've got to work with.”
