ROCHESTER, N.Y. — After three hours of back and forth, the Rochester Board of Education voted to move the start of the Rochester City School District school year to Thursday, September 9, a day later than originally planned.

The decision comes after days of meetings about a bus driver shortage plaguing the district.

"This evening, the Board of Education voted to change the start of school to September 9, 2021," Chief of Communications & Intergovernmental and Community Relations at Rochester City School District Marisol O. Ramos-Lopez said in a statement Sunday. "Students in grades Pre-K through 12 will return to school in person, five days a week, as planned. We are still working on this transportation crisis and will provide an update as soon as more information is available."

Under a proposed plan, Superintendent Dr. Lesli Myers-Small said students with their own way to school will start in person. Students without transportation will begin the year virtually.

“Either they don’t currently have transportation or they lose transportation, a remote learning plan will be put in place,” she said.

Right now, about 3,600 RCSD students are without transportation to school, where a majority of those students are concentrated among four high schools: Edison, Northeast, Northwest and Leadership.

The CEO of the Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority says his team is working to create a schedule to cover these schools.

“Our staff has been nonstop working to ensure superintendent that we are able to cover schools that don’t have coverage,” Bill Carpenter said.

Board members called on the community to help in any way they can to get students to school.

“If you have kids in your neighborhood and you have transportation please step up and support families so we can get all kids back to school," board member Beatriz LeBron said.

The board will meet again Monday at 6 p.m. to further discuss transportation options. All board meetings are be available via the RCSD’s Facebook and YouTube pages, and on the district’s website at www.rcsdk12.org/rcsdtv.