WESTBROOK — The school transportation department has addressed issues it had last year with buses with expired inspection stickers still on the road and problems with braking, exhaust and suspension systems.  But one one problem still plagues the department: the inability to attract and keep a full roster of bus drivers.

School districts across the state face the same problem.

“Finding drivers is a nightmare for every district in the state,” Superintendent Peter Lancia said.

Westbrook has one bus driver vacancy, which Director of Operations Dean Flanagin said puts the school department “in much better shape than most.” However, there no spare bus drivers, so when someone calls out sick or cannot come to work, buses sometimes have to double up on routes.

The department does have some retired bus drivers it can call upon to handle duties like field trips or when more than one driver is out, he said.

Flanagin is in the process of getting his commercial drivers license in the event he is pressed into driving a bus.

“I wanted to see firsthand what the training is like and that the requirements are do I have an inside look at what we do and how we do it,” Flanagin said.

The Westbrook district also collaborated with Gorham, South Portland, Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth to hold a job fair last month to attract drivers, along with substitute teachers, custodians/maintenance workers, bus drivers, nurses and other staff members.

Bus drivers, Lancia said, do a lot more than just take kids to and from school.

“They are not just driving the bus. They are the first (school employee) a student sees in the morning. They are our eyes and ears. We have a great group of drivers who really care about our kids,” he said.

Bus drivers also transport students at Saccarappa School to gym class at Canal or Congin, to the community center for the physical education unit on aquatics, to field trips and athletic games, as well as in some cases delivering food and mail between school buildings.

“I wish people knew it’s not just taking kids to and from school. (Drivers) are not sitting around waiting. They are booked all day, everyday,” Lancia said.

Meanwhile, Lancia said that with a better system in place to keep the department ahead of maintenance and inspections, the issue of overdue inspection and failing buses has become a thing of the past.

The new system, with a “fool-proof manner of monitoring” school bus maintenance work, has improved the way buses are maintained.

“The system alerts automatically both the transportation department and director of operations so we make sure we address things before they become a problem,” Lancia said.

Flanagin said while there were items that were flagged during the state police’s most recent inspection in July, “they were all minor in nature” and didn’t necessitate pulling the vehicles off the road for an extended period of time. The fleet, Flanagin said, includes 26 buses, two 14-person vans and five 6-person vans.

Michael Kelley can be reached at 780-9106 or [email protected] or on Twitter @mkelleynews.