students they transported.” When he arrived at DelVal, he said he held “entrance meetings” with all of his drivers as they started the job. “Every one of them told me that they were committed to the job until it stopped being fun, and the two factors they pointed to that made it not fun were how they were treated, their voices discounted by the prior leadership team, and the behavior of the students on their buses.” He shared that his management philosophy addressed the first issue. To address the second, the department trimmed its bus rules to a few easily enforceable guide- lines that removed any vagueness. It started holding students accountable and requesting follow up from the school sites in how they handled student write-ups. “On more than one occasion, I have asked school ad- ministrators to sit in the driver seat of a loaded school bus and tell me what they saw through the mirror,” he said. “Only then can they understand what we can and can’t see, and they start to understand why we enforce rules as we do, and [they] can partner with us in communicating with students and establishing standards of behavior.” In the neighboring state of New York, Randolph Jer-


reld, transportation director for Rotterdam-Mohonasen Central Schools, said his starting pay of $21 an hour is low for their area. He said most nearby schools are


starting people between $23-$25 an hour, with contract- ed drivers making more. However, he noted his drivers are unionized, so arbitrarily raising wages is not possi- ble. Each year, drivers do get a 3 percent raise until the contract runs out or is re-negotiated. The district pays a maximum salary of $29 an hour to drivers who have been with the district for 15 or 20 years. Still, they are short drivers.


“When I started here, we did all of our own work [inhouse],” he shared. “Now, I have nine regular runs contracted out in addition to much of our McKin- ney-Vento work. I still barely make it each day with our inhouse work. I have four sub drivers, some of whom are not available every day. This means my mechanics and office staff are driving often.” He noted that regular drivers are offered benefits, such as


health insurance, but the value depends on the individual driver. He said offering such is an expensive option for the district. For example, he said, a part-time driver who gets family health insurance will receive more in the cost of those benefits than their annual salary. Rotterdam-Mohonasen Central Schools offers a base


of four and half hours per day, but many take other jobs in the middle of the day—as a security monitor or in food services—to obtain another three hours. “In essence, it


44 School Transportation News • JULY 2024


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