With the school bus driver shortage affecting school districts nationwide, a mom in Kaukauna, Wisconsin took matters into her own hands and became a driver, reported TMJ4 News.
Sydney Reichert was interviewed by a local reporter and shared her story on why she decided to become a bus driver at for contractor Kobussen Bus.
When Reichert’s daughter Nova was seven weeks old, Reichert recalls being ready to go back to work and bring home a paycheck, but she was not ready to leave her daughter in daycare.
Becoming a school bus driver allowed Reichert “the best of both worlds,” said Kobussen Safety Manager Henrique Hilgenberg.
Reichert is not the only one that has this opportunity. Other moms who joined the “mom army,” which consists of moms who have assumed the jobs of school bus drivers amid bus driver shortages, and this allows them to both work and be with their kids.
“This job gives me the opportunity to stay home with my two-year-old, bring him to work with me and he gets to have that social environment with all the other kiddos on the bus,” said Carleigh Trudeau, another mom also driving a bus.
Hilgenberg said he sees moms, coaches and others in the community stepping up and trying to fill open bus driver positions.
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