Riding the bus, walking, biking, being driven or being picked up. These are all common ways that students get home after school. Unfortunately, riding the bus is no longer an option for many students at Yutan. With a shortage of bus drivers due to retirement, the district decided in June to only offer buses to students living four miles or further away from school. 

“We regret to inform you that the district has made the difficult decision to cancel bus routes carrying students to/from school who reside inside 4 miles of school for the foreseeable future,” stated former superintendent Mitch Hoffer in a letter posted on the Yutan website. 

One of the students who lives inside those four miles is sophomore Madalynn Bussing. 

“I was affected [by the loss of buses] because I used to take them home, and now I have to walk home every day,” said Bussing.

This change is also affecting Bussing’s family. 

“My family has to give us more rides to school and from school when they have work to go to,” said Bussing. 

Since work affects when rides are available, that means some students have to resort to walking, but that might mean walking in extreme conditions. 

“Not having a ride home or having to walk home a lot more in the heat and in the winter is terrible,” said Bussing. 

This change in transportation has an even bigger impact on the elementary school since those students can’t drive yet. But elementary principal Trevor Hoegh came up with a solution to help the increased traffic because more parents have to pick up their kids.

“We have an early dismissal. Anybody that’s getting picked up leaves at three o’clock,” said Hoegh. “Those that are either walking home or riding the bus, they leave at 3:20.”

So far, Hoegh feels that the changes have gone smoothly, especially with everyone adjusting. 

“The parents have done a great job of being flexible. So by 3:25 or 3:30, we pretty much have everybody cleared out,” said Hoegh. “The staff have done a great job of working together and making sure that kids get home safely every day.”

Yutan Public Schools interim superintendent Rex Pfeil has been working hard to find more bus drivers for these remaining students. 

“We’re actively advertising in about a 50-mile radius or more from Yutan and Wahoo,” said Pfeil. “We’ve reached out to Fremont, Ashland and Omaha World-Herald to try to see if we can get drivers to come out.”

The administration is hoping that the bus conditions aren’t permanent and that Yutan will find more drivers soon. 

“We’re working as hard as we can to make it work because I know [the buses are] an expectation,” said Pfeil.