One Marion school bus driver who tested positive for COVID-19 recently led to the quarantine of nine other drivers who had been in close contact. On Monday, nearly two dozen school bus drivers were out, some due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Marion County School Board Chairwoman Nancy Thrower said she visited transportation depot offices on Monday because of the growing crisis. She soon learned that the situation was more dire than she suspected.
School district spokesman Kevin Christian said the district has 270 bus drivers. Before the pandemic, the district had been experiencing "about 10 percent absences on any given day." Now the rate is about double that.