PAINESVILLE, Ohio — More schools and districts across Northeast Ohio are closed Wednesday due to the heat.
One of them includes Riverside Local School District, who announced the news late Tuesday night.
Aside from the hot temperatures, they also told News 5 they’re canceling classes because they don’t have enough bus drivers; so, they would have to split routes which would lead to longer driving times.
Nick Carrabine, who is the Director of Marketing and Communications at Riverside Local School District, says this is concerning because students and drivers would be on the bus for a long amount of time while in the afternoon heat.
Carrabine says the district is already short-staffed, but he says they have even more drivers off from work on Wednesday due to being sick.
He says the district has been advertising the need for bus drivers.
On a typical day, he says they’re short about eight routes so with fewer workers on a hot day like this one – Carrabine says it makes things challenging.
“We've already been experiencing throughout these first couple of weeks, some prolonged bus routes, but it hasn't been, a safety issue with the heat. With tomorrow, with the projected highs and the heat index going into the nineties and mid-nineties, again, it's just not a safe atmosphere for a child to be on a bus for 45 to 60 minutes in the afternoon,” said Carrabine
The district plans to reopen on Thursday.
In the meantime – if you or anyone you know is interested in being a bus driver – you can head to the district’s websitefor more information.
Watch live and local news any time:
Download the News 5 Cleveland app now for more stories from us, plus alerts on major news, the latest weather forecast, traffic information and much more. Download now on your Apple device here, and your Android device here.
You can also catch News 5 Cleveland on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, YouTube TV, DIRECTV NOW, Hulu Live and more. We're also on Amazon Alexa devices. Learn more about our streaming options here.
