government. Right now, we’re in a holding pattern,” he commented. “Last year, we were unsuccessful in getting 10 vans, so that made us rely heavily on EverDriven. We certainly increased their use last year. We are working to get HopSkipDrive in place so we can see what it will look like in addition to EverDriven.” About 65 miles to the southeast, Newport News Public Schools offers a contrast to Henrico County. Newport News Transportation Director Shay Coates said although he is down 85 drivers from his full complement of 324, he has yet to call on any TNCs or ATCs. Instead, he uses bus assistants who transport McKinney-Vento and spe- cial needs students in the district’s white fleet of activity buses, SUVs and sedans. “We’ve trained bus assistants to drive and pick them
up or we might use one of our white activity buses depending upon the number of students in that area to pick them up in a central location,” Coates explained. “The activity bus is a 20-passenger vehicle. You don’t need a CDL to drive these vehicles. We make sure they go through a defensive driving course. They’ve already been trained on how to handle students, but we put
them through our own internal course that’s about a weeklong. They do not fall under all the other stuff as [under a] CDL. We are looking to get our bus assistants trained to help with the neighboring districts and stop using yellow school buses.” Coates said it would save money and time. “We use mostly propane buses in our district, so the
fuel cost is pretty low compared to diesel,” he said. “It’s also the time. The traffic can be pretty bad, so they will spend less time in traffic.” Coates said Newport News provides a monetary
incentive to encourage CDL drivers to double up on routes. A driver and a bus assistant on a special needs bus earn an extra $30 a day for double runs. “So, a driver can get up to $150 extra per week,” Coates calculated. “We did that last year and we’re doing it this year. A bus assistant can also get that for a special needs bus. If you do a double run, you can get up to $150 a week. A lot of teamwork helps us out there.” Coates added however that the district is researching the potential use of third-party vendors. “We are exploring that this fall to see cost-wise what it would be versus us
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