Nathan Williams, a Paso Robles school board member and retired firefighter, didn’t wait for someone else to solve the district’s bus driver shortage—he got behind the wheel himself.
“I thought, well I’ve driven a fire engine for the last 20 years of my career before I retired last year. It won’t be that big of a stretch for me to drive a bus, so I’m gonna put my feet in the dirt and get them dirty and see what happens,” Williams said.
He explained the dilemma for school districts like Paso Robles Joint Unified School District (PRJUSD), where transportation is often desired but not mandated.
“There’s a struggle between understanding that no school district is required to provide transportation, but every school district wants to provide transportation,” he said. “I don’t know a school district that doesn’t want to be able to.”
For PRJUSD, maintaining even its limited home-to-school routes has been difficult amid a nationwide bus driver shortage.
“I reached out to our district and said, ‘I’d like to go through with your next class,’” he said. “I got myself certified, did the DMV testing, all the medical stuff and everything.”
Since then, he’s stayed active as a volunteer driver—most recently taking the district’s cheerleaders to Clovis for a football game when no one else was available.
“What makes it unique for me … is the fact that you have so many individuals that are dependent upon you, … because their lives are in your hands, literally,” he said. “That part was unique, but it was also very exciting and very rewarding because I knew that had I not been able to drive, they wouldn’t have been able to go.”
Thinking back on his time in high school, he said that opportunities to travel to sports games or field trips were invaluable.
“For me to be a part of it and help that, to allow them to be there and enable them to be there and be a part of things, was rewarding for myself,” he said.
While other employees hold paid transportation roles, Williams is the only person in the district volunteering to drive a bus from time to time.
“I am the last resort,” he said with a laugh. “Because we always go through our employees first, and we have our amazing pool of bus drivers, and obviously we have open vacancies for more.”
He noted that his fire career shaped his view of service.
“One of my former chiefs talked about how you have to have a servant heart. … It takes a special kind of person to want to give of yourself in that way, and that’s something that has always been true to me,” he said. “Right now, what I’ve chosen to do is continue that passion by putting my time in along with my family for our community and our kids. That’s just me trying to give back.”
Whether students recognize him behind the wheel doesn’t matter to him.
“No, I don’t think so,” he said with a laugh. “I stand out just because I have this long beard now.”
While Williams has been filling gaps where he can, district leaders have been working on a broader solution.
This fall, PRJUSD launched a full-time, year-round transportation and facilities support technician position—a hybrid role that blends student transportation with custodial and grounds work.
“It’s difficult sometimes to get people through the whole [training] process,” said Shauna Ames, assistant superintendent of human resources. “It requires expensive training and a special license, so what we had before—five-hour positions, and even some eight-hour positions—still weren’t filling as much as we needed.”
For the first time, the district is hiring candidates even if they don’t already hold a bus license, provided they obtain it within six months.
“People apply, but they don’t have their license,” Ames said. “So now we can hire them without it as long as they’re willing to work and get it in that first six months.”
The district covers the $8,000 training, and most hours can be completed during the workday. Administrators found models for these combined roles in other California districts, but PRJUSD added its own twist by creating a pathway for unlicensed applicants.
“This was a big one,” Williams said. “It’s easy to get behind this because this directly impacts our schools, directly impacts our students.”
The driver shortage has hit the district’s home-to-school routes the hardest, while also limiting field trips and transportation to sports events.
Two new hires are already preparing to start, with more candidates in the pipeline. But because new employees must complete the licensing program, the full restoration of home-to-school bus routes will take time.
“It could take the full six months,” Ames said. “In reality we’re looking at next year to start some of those routes unless we can hire people already with their license.”
Ames emphasized that the district wants to resume routes as soon as possible.
“I think some parents are feeling frustrated that they don’t have standard home-to-school transportation, but it’s not for a lack of trying,” she said. “We haven’t cut it because we’re not going to do it. We’ve just cut it because we don’t have people in the position.”
Williams hopes more community members will step up—whether as full-time applicants or volunteers.
“We want to have more bus drivers,” he said. ∆
Reach Staff Writer Chloë Hodge at chodge@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Nov 13-23, 2025.