R-M staff
During a special meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 26, the board discussed ways to recruit and retain school bus drivers at Perry County School District 32.
Superintendent Andy Comstock presented a draft plan to change the transportation department salary schedule; that proposal provides an increased daily base pay, per-mile wages for the longest routes, and awarding steps on the salary schedule for every driver’s previous driving experience. The board tabled a vote on that plan and asked Comstock to make revisions for consideration at their Nov. 9 meeting after they reached a consensus that the increase would not be enough to attract additional drivers.
The current salary schedule for district bus drivers is split, with those drivers who came to the district during the 2013-14 school year when the board ended a long-standing contract with Meyer Bus Line. That move saved the district more than $600,000 in the first year of operating its own transportation service. The “Meyer drivers” were brought on board at $10 over their Meyer route pay. New drivers were placed on a salary schedule similar to all other district salary schedules. The minimum pay for a regular daily bus route is currently $55 per day.
“I’ve been working to formulate a new, single salary schedule that is generous and fair to all of our drivers,” Comstock said. “We need to increase the base pay to attract new drivers, and we are changing our policy to allow new drivers to bring in their previous years of CDL driving experience. We will also award our current drivers on their professional driving years of experience.”
The board expressed satisfaction with the overall plan, but asked Comstock to investigate if a larger increase in the base driver pay would be sustainable over time. They tabled the vote until the Nov. 9 regular meeting.
“One of our goals is to attract drivers with previous CDL driving experience,” Comstock said. “We’ve had several people who would probably be driving for us if we had been able to place them at the 10- or 20-year mark for their accumulated years of driving experience. We hope that driving a bus becomes much more attractive to retired or current drivers who would like to work a few hours each day.”
Bus route changes Nov. 7
The nationwide bus shortage has impacted District 32 over the past several years. Transportation Director Sarah Orf said that some bus drivers are currently running two routes per day, which can result in students arriving at school after the first bell, or being held for up to 45 minutes before they can leave school in the afternoon.
To alleviate this issue, some bus routes at Perry County School District 32 will change on Nov. 7.
“All of the families who will experience a change in their students’ bus number or the timing of pickup and drop-off will receive a phone call from a driver before Nov. 3,” Orf said.
“Additionally, we have created two shorter routes that require just one driver, who will each run a double route every day. These changes are minor for most families, but the overall impact reduces the number of regular daily bus routes we are operating from 22 to 19. These changes free up two of our substitute drivers to fill in when a regular route driver is sick or needs a day off. The result will be fewer bus routes being canceled or delayed.”
Emergency Bus Routes will be shared with district families by Nov. 10.
The district will also continue to operate four special services routes, and three utility routes to transport early childhood and parochial school students to and from district schools.
“We’ve been in a constant state of emergency regarding transportation services for the last year and a half,” said Melanie Hager, assistant director of transportation. “We’ve lost three drivers in the last 14 months, including James Kennedy who was killed in a Sept. 6 crash; this has been devastating to our department. We’ve also said farewell to several drivers who retired. At the same time, legislation has made it more difficult to obtain a CDL with the proper endorsements, so it takes longer to get new drivers in place. Unfortunately, some of our families have been greatly affected as our pool of drivers decreased. We are hopeful that these more efficient routes make life easier for the families we serve.”
Hager said that she and Orf are proud that District 32 is still able to offer bus service to families who live in town. “The state requires that we offer bus service to students who live more than 3.5 miles from campus,” she said. “We’ve always bussed students who live more than 1 mile from campus. Many area schools have had to bump out to the outer limit due to driver shortages, but we’ve been able to hold the course.”
Orf thanked the district’s parents for their support and patience. “As a parent and grandparent myself, I understand how difficult it is to change school drop-off and pick-up plans on short notice,” she said. “Our parents stuck with us, and we are grateful.”
Perry County School District No. 32 has declared a District State of Emergency due to a critical shortage of school bus drivers earlier this school year.
It is no secret that the district has struggled with a critical shortage of bus drivers, which is affecting schools nationwide,” Deputy Superintendent Dr. Fara Jones said in a message. We have had to ask our students to make numerous sacrifices recently, including canceling morning and afternoon bus routes, having students wait for 30-45 minutes after school before boarding a bus for the ride home, arriving to school late so bus drivers can run multiple morning routes, and often not having buses available to transport our students to athletic events and other extracurricular activities.”
Orf and Hager are actively recruiting new drivers, and offer training for applicants. If you’re interested in driving a school bus for District 32, please contact Melanie Hager at mhager@pcsd32.com or 573-547-7500 Ext. 1263 for more information.
