A succession of community members criticized members of the Pine Bush School Board and district administrators Tuesday night over the cancellation of school because of a shortage of bus drivers and the district’s anti-COVID policies.

District officials were painted as visionless for not anticipating the driver shortage and either fascists or "drifting closer to communism" for blindly obeying state mandates in place to ensure the safety of staff members and students.

Speakers repeatedly told the board that they needed to start listening to the community and not the state or Orange County, even if it meant racking up fines of a $1,000 a day for noncompliance.

“When are you going to stand up for us?” one community member asked.

The board was told that masks allegedly do nothing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus but damage their children.

“I don’t care what the state says… We elect you,” said one speaker. Another speaker confidently stated that science doesn’t support masks or vaccines.

When board president Gretchen Meier pointed out that she gets many emails from parents supporting the safety measures, she was asked to prove it.

The situation in the Pine Bush cafeteria Tuesday night was a microcosm of the nation. Recent examples abound. In Los Angeles, some police officials are taking the city to court over its mask and vaccine regulations while The Washington Post printed a piece by professors at George Washington University and Princeton University who analyzed data and starkly concluded that resisting vaccination is “equivalent to driving while intoxicated.”

Meanwhile, a check on the number of daily hospitalizations and fatalities ascribed to the virus show hotspots in states where citizens eschew masks and vaccinations. The nation also passed a milestone this week: The COVID-19 death toll swept past 663,000, or one in every 500 Americans.

When asked why some students were quarantined at home because they were exposed to the virus, despite wearing masks at school, Superintendent Tim Mains answered that so far this semester, all the confirmed cases of COVID-19 were contracted off of school property.

On Wednesday the district reported that it had learned Tuesday of five cases of COVID-19, one each at Circleville, Pine Bush, Pakanasink and EJ Russell elementary schools. On Wednesday, a case was reported at Pine Bush High School.

No Buses, No School

The crowd also held board members and administrators responsible for a bus driver shortage that resulted in hundreds of students unable to attend school on two days and a district shutdown on Friday. School was also called off on Monday, but the day was converted into a Superintendent’s Conference Day, previously scheduled for March. Bus service resumed Tuesday, making do with fewer drivers by shortening the school day at PBE, CES and the high school, Mains said.

Administrators pointed fingers at Birnie Bus Service. Mains said that bus service actually began smoothly for the vast majority of students on September 1. But a week ago Tuesday, Birnie told the district it could not cover 11 runs on Wednesday. On Wednesday, Birnie said it couldn’t cover 12 runs on Thursday. On Friday, Mains shut down school rather than transport just some of the district’s roughly 5,000 students, spread out over 108 square miles.

The shortage of drivers was blamed partly on Birnie’s pay scale and lack of benefits, the use of medical marijuana and on government COVID-19 relief checks. But the problem is in no way limited to Pine Bush. Mains said Newburgh delayed the opening of school by three days for lack of drivers. Nationally, the same story applies. Massachusetts called on the National Guard to drive school buses, Mains said. Pine Bush contacted a dozen other bus services, but only one could afford to lend drivers, he said. So for 30 days, a limit imposed by the state, Birnie will get 10 drivers to help cover Pine Bush routes, Mains said. That should give the district time to get a contract in place to meet state regulations for the replacement drivers to finish out the school year. In addition, Birnie will be fined for failing to meet the conditions of its contract with the district.

One bright spot came from all the coverage of Birnie’s situation; seven drivers are now in training and another 28 have applied for jobs, Mains said. While it’s doubtful all will make it past background checks and the two to three months of training, some new drivers should be on the way. Pine Bush, which helped Birnie put together the new bus schedule, will also provide the bus company with the services of its human resources department to help keep the buses rolling.

District Welcomes Many New Faces

The human resources department also had to deal with an unprecedented number of vacancies to fill over the summer, said Angela Wise-Landman, the district’s executive director of human resources, data and school counseling. She reported that resignations and retirements, some of which were related to the pandemic, left a big hole in the district’s staff. The district took its recruitment virtual, holding an exclusive job fair online, in its drive to attract employees. As of Tuesday, the district had filled 117 positions, including 52 full-time, tenure-track teaching slots. All of the new teachers were in classrooms on opening day, Mains said.

Another 40 positions, just over half of the openings among teaching assistants, aides and monitors, were also filled. Thirty-seven of those so-called SRPs, or school resources personnel, of which 23 are teaching assistants, remain to be filled. Wise-Landman said some of the problem is a backlog at the state level of people licensed for the job. But she also laid some of the blame on COVID-19 relief checks. The department was able to fill 22 non-instructional positions, with 13 more to go.

She said teaching assistants are most missed in lower grades, where teachers can use an extra set of hands.

The pandemic and the attendant switch to virtual learning was also part of the reason middle school summer attendance was the highest in a number of years. Ninety-one students from Crispell and Circleville middle schools took part in a summer semester that was expanded to five weeks from its usual four. Not all the students were there because they failed two or more of their classes — some took advantage of a special class enrichment program — but the virus probably played a part, Mains said. No matter the reason, the many students were just glad to be back in a classroom and among friends, he said. Summer classes were also geared to emphasize the importance of mental and emotional health. According to statistics provided by the district, 95 percent of the students who attended summer school were promoted to the next grade.