FORSYTH COUNTY -- "We need to get them home to their parents. Get them to school and get them home," said Joan Scales, Winston-Salem Forsyth County school bus driver.
Joan Scales and Tim Davis Jr. have important jobs.
"You are a mother, father, sometimes you are a counselor, just someone they can talk to, someone who they can't talk to somebody else. You wear a lot of hats," said Timothy Davis Jr., Winston-Salem Forsyth County school bus driver.
Winston-Salem Forsyth County schools needs more like them.
"We're probably 30 bus drivers short. We have no sub drivers either because we're using all of our sub drivers right now as regular drivers. So really, we could use 50 drivers," said Darryl Taylor, Wiston-Salem Forsyth County Schools director of transportation.
The shortage is straining the existing pool of drivers.
"But now they need him somewhere else and I have to do his route. I drop off, go back, pick up, drop off, go back, and go to another school. I do one school twice, and that's pressure," said Scales.
But the district just opened a new staging area in Kernersville.
"We're bringing 40 buses here to get closer to the Kernersville schools. These buses had been traveling to Winston-Salem," said Taylor.
Officials expect it to pay off with faster route times and lower fuel costs.
"Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools transports over 30,000 students a day, and we run right about 358 buses per day. This right here will make our times getting to schools will be better," said Taylor.
With this new staging area, officials are hoping to attract new drivers from Kernersville, Winston-Salem and even Greensboro.
Rolling a bus fleet closer to students and prospective drivers.
You can find more information about applying to be a bus driver here.