We hope all of our families are enjoying this holiday season. For those families using District bus transportation, we also want to thank you for your cooperation and understanding this school year as we work through the challenges of a national bus driver shortage. We realize that the scheduled route cancellations are inconvenient for our families, and we have taken several measures to hire additional drivers to reduce these cancellations going forward. Accordingly, as we plan for the return to school on January 3rd, we are providing this update on our transportation program and scheduled route cancellations for January.
Although we have some Transportation staff who are retiring (or will be on a leave of absence), the positive news is that we have a number of bus driver candidates currently in various stages of the state's licensing and training process. Unfortunately, this process takes approximately six weeks, from the application to the final road test, before a new driver is properly trained for a regular route assignment.
As a result, and as we evaluate the available staff for the return to school on January 3rd, 2022, we are reducing the weekly scheduled route cancellations in January (from 3 routes to 2 routes), through January 28th. The routes to be cancelled, beginning with Routes E & F the week of January 3rd - 7th, are as follows:
January 2022 Scheduled Bus Route Cancellations
| Week | Routes Cancelled | Schools |
| Week of January 3, 2022 | Route E | Northville High School, Hillside, Ridge Wood |
| Route F | Northville High School, Hillside, Moraine | |
| Week of January 10, 2022 | Route K | Northville High School, Hillside, Thornton Creek |
| Route L | Northville High School, Meads Mill, Silver Springs | |
| Week of January 17, 2022 | Route O | Northville High School, Meads Mill, Moraine |
| Route Q | Northville High School, Hillside, Silver Springs | |
| Week of January 24, 2022 | Route P | Northville High School, Hillside, Silver Springs |
| Route R | Northville High School, Hillside, Thornton Creek |
At this time, pending any unexpected driver attrition or pandemic-related absences, we anticipate that the number of driver candidates who will have completed their licensing/training requirements will enable us to eliminate scheduled bus cancellations beginning with the second semester in February, and resume full bus transportation for our students and families.
If you have any questions, please contact Ms. Carrie Drew at (248) 465-2073, or via e-mail at cdrew@durhamschoolservices.com. You may also contact Mike Zopf, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations, directly via e-mail at zopfmi@northvilleschools.org.
Again, thank you for your cooperation and ongoing support.