VIENNA — The Maries R-1 Board of Education heard concerns from a parent about the district’s bus routes during its Oct. 22 meeting.

Chasity Finn asked the board to include her in the communications section of the meeting’s agenda. She is a parent of a Maries R-1 student. They live on Maries Road 302, known locally as Paydown Road. Finn said that so far during this school year, her family had not had door-to-door transportation to school. She suspected the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s recommendation for limiting bus routes to 75 minutes was the reason the bus turned around 2 miles before reaching her home. Two other families are affected by the route not continuing down the road, one of which also attended the meeting.

“We pay tax dollars to have our kids picked up,” Finn said. “We’re in a rural area, and it has been playing dice to get our kids to school. We all work and go out of the house at different times. It’s just not feasible.”

Finn suggested running the route all the way through the road instead of turning around partway through it. She asked the board to look into options for how the students can receive transportation by bus. She also asked for consideration about how the board accommodates transportation for students who live in town compared to those who live several miles outside of town.

“We will look into it and get back with you,” Board President Dave Long said after hearing Finn’s concerns.

The district has faced a bus driver shortage over the last few years. Although interested people have come forward to drive buses for activity trips, the school has not found anyone to hire for a regular route. The number of daily routes has dropped from seven to five as a result of the district losing drivers with no suitable replacements.

During the board meeting, Superintendent Teresa Messersmith said the district continues its hunt for route drivers.

“We are actively looking for bus drivers,” she said. “Our post is still up on our website. It’s definitely not that we are not trying to find bus drivers. We would be willing to add two routes, at least, if we could find the drivers. We have put it in the paper. We put it on Facebook. We put it on our website. We just are not having any luck finding a bus driver.”

The superintendent’s office continues to accept applications for qualified drivers with or without a bus because the school is willing to contract buses for drivers without their own. If the district found another driver, it could adjust routes to better meet transportation needs.