ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Rochester City School District Superintendent Dr. Lesli Myers-Small announced at an HR Committee of the Whole meeting that nine more bus drivers have resigned, adding to a district-wide bus driver shortage.

These nine additional resignations impact routes for students with disabilities. This includes one driver for nine Monroe Transportation routes, impacting 51 students, two drivers for two Ontario Bus Service routes, impacting seven students, and six drivers for eight First Student routes, impacting 112 students, as of 4 p.m. Tuesday.

Myers-Small says that there are 19 additional unassigned routes, totaling 36 unassigned routes, which is impacting 174 students with disabilities.

The Rochester Board of Education voted on Sunday to move the start of the school year to Thursday, September 9, a day later than originally planned.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority Board voted to authorize plans to move forward with driving 3,877 students, in addition to the 3,500 students it's already slated to transport. The vote allows the board to approve a temporary change to the bus company’s system that will allow it to negotiate with the school district.

The head of the Rochester Teachers Association calls the situation with the lack of bus drivers for the district a "debacle."

But Adam Urbanski says the one day delay for the start of the school year helps educators get all the more ready to welcome back students. He's hoping for no unpleasant surprises on Thursday, adding it is families that also need to make sure those kids are in class that day.

"There could be other things that will go wrong,” Urbanski said. “We hope all the bus drivers that are supposed to show up on Thursday will actually show up. We hope that all the families that are supposed to send their children to school for in-person learning will actually send their children."

It's not an official city school district event, but school board president Van White says he's organized an eleventh hour community meeting the night before students are set to return to class. It's at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the First Genesis Baptist Church on Hudson Avenue.

He says Myers-Small will be on hand to provide transportation updates.

People from the transportation business will also be on hand to talk about job opportunities.