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Driver Shortage Plan

Parents and Guardians:

Princeton Public Schools and Palmer Bus Service partner together to provide transportation services to our families on a daily basis. The school district is 235 square miles and serves approximately 3300 students Pre-K to grade 12.

Like many districts in Minnesota, we are experiencing a shortage of bus drivers. This shortage is significant enough that the District and Palmer Bus Service have put together plans to safely get your children to or from school. In the event we do not have enough drivers to provide regular route transportation we will implement the following back up plan, which could impact students arrival to school or home from school.
 
District will notify parents of the affected route(s) via a Skylert message.

Morning Route- other routes will assist with picking up students on the bus route if the usual driver is unavailable.

  • Parents/Guardians could drop off student(s) instead of the bus. 
  • This delay would not affect your child’s daily attendance or be counted as a truancy.

Afternoon Route- It is likely that the bus route(s) affected would not be known until the day of the driver shortage.

Students of the affected route would either:

  • Combine with another route
  • Remain in their respective building until a bus is available after tier 1 route(s).
  • Students would be supervised during this time.
  • A snack, study space and fun activities would be provided.
  • Parents of the affected route(s) have the option of picking up their child at their respective school office.

Now would be an ideal time to verify your Skylert contact information in Skyward Family Access.  Please visit www.isd477.org/family-logins or contact your child’s school to review your contact phone number(s) and email address.
 
We want to assure you that we will use every possible tool at our disposal before going to our last resort of delaying routes. Princeton Public Schools and Palmer Bus Service understand that this is not ideal but also want to be prepared in the event that we have a shortage of drivers. Our struggle with the shortage of bus drivers is similar to what you are hearing in the news media across the state and country which compounds this problem of finding qualified drivers. 
 
We are working very hard to support Palmer Bus Service in the hiring of additional drivers. If you are interested in becoming a bus driver, or know of someone who is interested, please stop by Palmer Bus Service at 604 Old Highway 18 (near the hockey arena) between the hours of 8:30am and 2:00pm or call 763-631-5315 to get more information and apply.   
 
Thank you for your cooperation!
 
ISD 477 Transportation

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Other News

Thank you to everyone who participated in our September 26 meeting to discuss the critical challenges facing Princeton Public Schools. Your involvement is vital as we work together to find sustainable solutions for our district.

We are dedicated to expanding our tools and resources to ensure that all of our students are physically and actively included within the school community. Princeton Public Schools is excited to be partnering with ParentPowered