HENRIETTA, N.Y. — School districts from all over Monroe County are running into a bus driver shortage. The Rush-Henrietta School District is one of them.

The district currently has 14 bus driver positions that it is trying to fill. The director of human resources says they've also been working to fill more teacher aide and maintenance positions as well.

"This has been an incredibly challenging summer in terms of filling positions, said Dr. Patrick McCue, assistant superintendent for human resources at the district. "Probably the most challenging we've seen...the number of applicants is way down so we have a smaller pool to draw from in most titles, and that makes it much more difficult to find the high quality applicants. You can find them, it just takes a lot more time."

McCue attributes the shortage to several reasons. He says more people are resigning, retiring early or moving out of the area completely. He also believes the pandemic must have something to do with it.

Over the summer, the district filled 65 hourly positions and 40 teaching and administrative positions. And there are still openings.

McCue says the starting pay for bus drivers has been raised to $16 an hour. He says the other districts are competing against each other for the same pool of applicants, but they also work together, passing along applicants to other districts if they no longer have the opening.

It's also not just other school districts that Rush-Henrietta is competing with. With a widespread worker shortage in most fields, they are also competing against health systems, the restaurant industry and other businesses that are desperate for help and raising their starting wage.