It’s a known fact that it’s imperative to keep the school bus wheels turning for a school to operate. Experienced, CDL licensed school bus drivers are a difficult commodity to come by and districts often take to advertising for them. Recruiting bus drivers to Hancock County just got a whole lot harder given the changes to be implemented by the State, but retaining the current crew may be the most difficult challenge of all.
A Hancock County school bus driver spoke to Hometown News on the condition of anonymity and related her concern and frustration with the plan conveyed to the bus drivers by officials from the State.
“We are all to be RIF’d so they can change our contracts and our schedules,” she said. “We will have to bid on bus runs so we may not get our bus runs back.”
“We were told we will keep our seniority and they have no plans as of right now to eliminate operators, but we know once they start changing runs it is a good possibility to eliminate a few,” she said.
To many residents (including me) the bus drivers’ schedule is difficult to understand,
“We have 2 classifications as bus operators, 5.75 hour D scale and a 7 hour D scale. According to the State code there is only one bus operator classification, not 2,” she explained.
“This is why the RIFs – to put us all in one classification. All operators will work 7 hours next year, but they will go by the D pay scale which is for the 5.75 hour operators,” she said.
The 5.75 operators right now will get the same pay, but will be expected to work 7 hours next year. “Us 7 hour operators will work our 7 hours, but at the D scale pay which is roughly a $355.00 month pay cut.
“The operators are upset and mad. We have every right to be. We have worked our way up the so call ladder to get the runs we like and that fit with our life’s schedule and now it is all changing,” she said. “Most of us work two jobs to make ends meet now. The majority of us just lost another hour + out of our day that we cannot make money at our second job and in the same sentence were told, “we are paying you less for the same job you have done forever.”
The Board of Education is slated to meet March 23 at 5:30 p.m. at the JDRIV Career Center. Speakers may sign up in the delegation section to be heard.
