To help this Lexington school reopen, teachers and principal now drive a bus

One special school in Fayette County was able to return to in-person learning this week because its principal and two teachers offered to transport kids amid a school bus driver shortage.

“We’d love to help out and do it if it means getting our kids back on campus,” said Chris Salyers, the principal of The Learning Center.

Kids in grades 8-12 apply to attend the school with an enrollment of 200. The students often don’t fit well in a larger school environment for a variety of reasons, Salyers said.

Fayette schools began a gradual in-person return on February 22 for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down school buildings in March 2020. But the district was delayed until Monday in opening several special schools because they don’t have enough bus drivers.

Two years ago, Salyers, and teachers Bill Bates and Adam Boldt got a license that enabled them to drive a school bus so they could transport students to off campus workplaces for career exploration.

“Little did we know two years later it would be the difference between us getting kids back on campus in the middle of the pandemic,” said Salyers.

“To see them jumping on a bus ...it was like a homecoming,” he said. “I think it eased a lot of their anxieties.”

District high school director James McMillin praised Salyers and the two teachers at Monday’s school board meeting.

“They stepped up and were driving buses” to make sure students could get to school and relieve the pressure the transportation staff is facing because of a shortage, McMillin said.

The transportation staff was still 29 school bus drivers short on Monday and the district is asking families at all schools to have an alternative plan if bus service is interrupted, said chief operating officer Myron Thompson.

Eight people are in training, he said, and multiple efforts are being made to hire others.

Thompson said staff from Locust Trace AgriScience Center were also shuttling students from main high schools to their special high school.

Bates said he and his fellow employees were willing to do whatever it takes to return to in-person learning.

“We missed having our students on campus,” said Bates , who teaches special education and career and technical education.

Adam Boldt, who teaches physical education and career and technical education, said on the bus this week, “There were a lot of smiles and a lot of laughter.”

Students said they were happy to see a familiar face on the bus.

“I am happy that I can go back to school instead of staying at home and doing school online,” said ninth grader Landon Lewis.

Junior Kamden Johnson said, “It was cool because I actually know the people driving the bus. It is better to be in person instead of at home.”