Published October 27, 2025 by Dana Richie, Portland Press Herald.
While many districts are experiencing bus driver shortages, South Portland has a full staff.
A timid kindergartner turned on the waterworks whenever the school bus doors opened.
“I just told him he’d have a good day,” Krista Walton said. This was last year, when Walton was a first-year bus driver and Joshua, the little boy, was a kindergartener.
Now, he’s a brave first grader, and he greets Walton with a smile and a hello when he gets on the bus each day.
“I like making the kids happy,” Walton said. The other day, she found a piece of paper that said “best bus driver ever” left behind on her driver’s seat.
This week, the South Portland School Department recognized the hard work of school bus drivers. On Thursday, on their break between routes, drivers shared a barbecue meal donated by Moe’s Original BBQ. School Bus Driver Appreciation week featured other festivities, including students making cards and posters for transportation staff.
The school district is fully staffed with 22 full-time drivers and two in training, according to Mike Nalli, director of operations and safety. But when he started a couple of years ago, the department was understaffed.
“It was chaos in the mornings,” he said. When multiple people called out sick, there was a small margin of error, and they had no choice but to merge routes.
Other communities across the state continue to struggle with bus driver shortages.
There are between 40 and 80 positions available statewide at any given time, according to Cheryl Brackett, transportation coordinator at the Maine Department of Education’s School Safety Center.
Kennebunk-based Regional School Unit 21 has 27 out of the 33 drivers it needs, according to Transportation Manager Chris Pasciuto. The district is also down about seven bus aides, who generally drive smaller vehicles for special education students. Last year, RSU 21 canceled routes as a result of the shortages.
Brunswick merged regular routes and has occasionally had to reschedule after-school sports and events due to lack of transportation, according to Superintendent Phil Potenziano.
Nalli credits South Portland’s stability of staffing to the in-house training it offers, helping substitutes earn their licenses and endorsements.
For many, bus driving is not their first career.
“It’s the best retirement gig,” Ken Proctor said.
He’s 78 years old, and he’s been a bus aid for special needs students for the past six years.
“I love doing it for the kids,” he said. All of the bus drivers are willing to pitch in and help each other – and the students – out. If a kid doesn’t have a winter coat, for example, they work to find one.
Proctor particularly likes watching students grow up.
There’s one student who sometimes has a hard time, banging her head against the window or hitting if she has a bad day. “I sit next to her, and I hold her hand,” he said. If she’s sitting in the front seat, he reaches his hand back, and she squeezes it.
She was 4 or 5 when he started. Now, she’s 10.
Richard LaRoche, a South Portland native who went to South Portland High School, has been driving for three years.
“It feels right to me,” he said.
But driving a bus full of rowdy middle schoolers isn’t for the weak, he said.
“You have to be really patient and tolerant,” he said. Before a drive, he grounds himself in prayer and meditation to get in the right headspace.
“I was that age, and I remember I was a hellion on the school bus,” LaRoche said. “It came back to haunt me.”
Some drivers are new to driving.
It’s Eva Sage’s first year driving a school bus. The job was appealing because it worked with her 3-year-old’s daycare schedule, but she wasn’t sure what to expect. So far, she has felt very loved and supported.
“The kids want that interaction,” she said.