Findlay Schools seeking 5 more bus drivers

FINDLAY —Findlay City Schools needs about five more bus drivers to be ready for the 2026-2027 school year, but is working hard at recruiting, Superintendent Andy Hatton told the school board on Monday. Last year, the school board approved $6 million in budget reductions, including $821,000 in transportation savings that eliminated high school busing and limited K-8 transportation to students living outside of a two-mile radius from the district. In March, Hatton announced at a town hall that, with funds from the earned income tax levy starting to come in, the district plans to restore high school busing within a two-mile walk radius and decrease the walk radius to one mile for students in grades K-5 in 2026-27. Students in grades 6-8 will continue to have a two-mile walk radius. Hiring has been among the challenges, with a nationwide shortage of school bus drivers. At Monday's board meeting, Hatton said the district has 33 drivers on its payroll and needs about five more to be fully ready for August. This pool will ensure that there are enough drivers to cover extracurricular activities as well as the regular routes. Hatton said the district hired two drivers the first week of June, and has four individuals currently going through the interview process. "We still have an occasional resignation in the mix," he said. "We take a step forward, we take a step back." He said the district is continuing to work at recruiting throughout the community. Hatton also shared a hiring update. The district had cut around 40 teaching positions as part of the budget reductions announced last year, and is restoring 20 of them this fall as part of its "Path to Progress" announced in March. Because it is expected to take 18 months from the passage of the levy in May 2025 until the district will realize the full effects, programs and positions are not being restored all at once. The school board approved several of these new hires on Monday. "We're excited that those can return, in terms of some of those assistant coaches, assistant directors, (bringing) more opportunities for athletics back to the middle school," Hatton said. "So we're excited about those things." He added that the district is also having to replace more individuals than anticipated, because many employees took advantage of state-level changes making it easier to retire early. Six of the new hires, most at the high school level, attended Monday's meeting and introduced themselves to the board. "On such an actually truly beautiful Ohio evening, they could be anywhere tonight, and they chose to be right here with us at the board meeting," Hatton said. "So, welcome to Trojan Country. We are so glad you're part of our team." The school board also held a first reading of the student activities handbook for 2026-2027, which spells out expectations as far as student behavior required in order to participate in extracurricular activities. Hatton also shared about student camps going on this summer. Among them was kindergarten boot camp, which the district was able to hold after receiving a grant. Through this boot camp, "we're getting many of our young learners kindergarten-ready going into August," Hatton said.