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Osceola County holds bus driver job fair in hopes of filling dozens of openings

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — The Osceola County School District is down about 30 bus drivers and for weeks now, the shortage has been affecting how quickly students get to school.

On Friday, the district held a job fair for school bus drivers that netted about 50 applicants.

Unfortunately, though, officials say only about 40 percent of those will actually end up behind the wheel of a bus.

“I wish it was higher, but what we find is a lot of times people don’t know what they have to do to become a bus driver,” said district transportation director Shawn Tucker.

After an interview at the job fair, applicants are required to take 40 hours of training, spend three days on a bus with another driver and have a commercial driver’s license.

Along with the monetary reward, applicant Maxine Fearon was hoping to be a friendly face for students as they start their day.

“You’re the first one to pick them up in the morning, so you set the tone for the students in the morning,” she said. “Being a bus driver, as minimal as we may think it is, it can make a big difference in a student’s day.”

If 40 percent of the drivers who applied Friday actually end up driving a bus, the school district will still be short 10 drivers.