Four school bus drivers from Muscogee County School District were recognized by neighboring Harris County School District for helping transport students during a driver shortage.

At the Harris County School District’s board of education meeting on Sept. 3, the four drivers — Marshall Archie, Jackie Hancock, Jimmie Harris, and Ken Sherman — were thanked for stepping in to help and each received a plaque and a Harris County Tigers T-shirt, according to a news release from the district.

In August, with the impending start of school for HCSD, Transportation Director Cheryl Johnson determined that due to various reasons the department had a shortage of drivers. The training staff had been preparing new drivers, but they would not be ready for the start of school, so she contacted MCSD’s transportation director to ask for assistance from a few of their drivers.

“We always have a good substitute driver pool, but with the shortage, we just got in a bind right there at the beginning of the year,” Johnson explained. “Fortunately for us, MCSD began virtually. That meant there were a few drivers available to help us out.”

According to Johnson, the MCSD drivers had met the requirements set by HCSD and the Georgia Department of Education to qualify to drive a HCSD bus.

“They were very professional and devoted to school bus safety. They jumped in and assisted our team in successfully completing our main responsibility, which is safely transporting our Harris County students to and from school each day,” Johnson said. “The result was another great start of school for us. Our new drivers are now in place. The temporary drivers have since returned to their post at MCSD for the start of their in-person school. We will miss the MCSD Calvary as that is what we called them.”