CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Glenetta Smith-Tolliver grew up riding on school buses driven by her father.

Wednesday morning, when schools in Albemarle County open for the new year, Smith-Tolliver will begin her 27th year as a school bus driver.

“Really, I never thought I was going to drive a bus, but I love working with kids,” Smith-Tolliver told Cville Right Now on Tuesday. “So, I was like, my dad drove. I can drive.’”

While the division has struggled to attract drivers, Smith-Tolliver called her career behind the wheel “rewarding” and “wonderful.”

Over the years, the bonds she has forged with her student passengers have been special, even spending time with them on weekends, holding end-of-the-year parties for them, and running charity penny drives on her routes.

In fact, Smith-Tolliver is so invested in the lives of the children she drives to and from school, that in 2012, she adopted one of her riders, a 10-year-old girl who had been placed in foster care after her mother became ill.

That girl lived with Smith-Tolliver until turning 17, when she returned to live with her own mother and help take care of her.

“The kids are wonderful,” Smith-Tolliver said.

Smith-Tolliver is one about 160 bus drivers who will be shuttling county school children on the first day of classes Wednesday.

There are about 14,000 students in the division, Director of Transportation Jamie Gellner told Cville Right Now on Monday. Of those, about 10,000 requested bus service for the upcoming school year. On average, anywhere from 6,000 to 7,000 students actually ride county buses.

Ideally, the county would like about 50 students per bus, but with a shortage of drivers, this year’s headcounts will range from 54-78, Gellner said. Over the summer, she sent an email to families warning that the shortage could impact service, possibly resulting in earlier pick-up and later drop-off times.

But in the end, Gellner said the department was able to largely make the route schedule work out.

There are five stacked routes, where students will be picked up earlier and dropped at home later to allow their bus to make a second route run. Gellner said, on average, the difference will only be 10-20 minutes.

And Gellner said families are better served by stacked routes because they provide consistency with drivers and bus numbers.

“It’s a little less stressful,” Gellner said. “Even though it’s a little earlier and they get home a little later, it’s at least planned.”

Going into Wednesday, there are six routes that don’t have a permanent driver assigned, but Gellner said flex drivers – full-time substitutes – will handle those routes this month, while six new drivers are expected to complete training and begin driving in September.

“We want to keep improving our services, so the more drivers we can add, the shorter ride times we can have and the fewer kids on the busses,” she said.

Gellner said the department is always taking applications. Pay begins at $24.49 and the job has numerous perks, including weekends off. It’s a family-friendly job for people with kids, who are allowed to ride the bus with their parents.

Smith-Tolliver pointed out that, when schools are closed, bus drivers don’t have to scramble for childcare because they too have the day off.

Of course, it’s no cake walk. Smith-Tolliver said building relationships with the students on her bus – and engaging them one-on-one, especially in instances of discipline – has been one of the keys to her longevity in the post.

“It’s not an easy job,” Gellner said. “It’s a hard job. You have to drive the bus. You have to feel comfortable driving a really big vehicle. You also have to be a teacher. You have to be able to manage a classroom that’s twice the size of a teacher’s classroom behind you.”

For longtime employees like Smith-Tolliver, who drove for Charlottesville City Schools for 17 years before joining the County in 2017, it’s an extremely rewarding experience, and one she encourages other people to pursue.

“I think driving a school bus is a wonderful job,” she said.