new drivers,” Bridges said. “Many people can’t go without a paycheck during training. It takes about two months to get licensed, and then it might be another month before a new driver gets paid.” To help reduce that stress, Bridges reported that some
larger districts with bigger tax bases pay for the 20-hour class. “Since South Carolina school bus drivers need both the certificate for their classroom training and a CDL, I’m trying to speed-up the process by doing the CDL training before the classroom training,” she added. “They get their CDL packet, and we’ll go ahead and train them for the CDL before they even go to bus class. Then they can do the five hours of behind the wheel training, and we can get them paid quicker.”
Money Isn’t Everything “As far as pay goes, compared to neighboring districts, our pay
is competitive. Getting drivers is the problem,” Bridges admitted. “But once they are hired, we don’t have a lot of turnover, although disciplining students is the biggest deterrent that new drivers have. We are lucky to have ad- ministrators who are very good about backing us up.” Bridges would like more of her employees to have
[D]isciplining students is the biggest deterrant that new drivers have.”
enough hours to qualify for benefits. “It costs the district somewhere between $10,000 and $12,000 for each per- son. I’m working with the district to figure out a way for all of our drivers to qualify.” Then, there is rewarding per-
formance over seniority. Aurora Public Schools in Colorado, for example, is actually operating with extra drivers, said Director of Transportation Shawn E. Smith. Aurora drivers can pick up extra
— Edwina Bridges, Transportation Manager Lauren District #56 in Clinton, South Carolina
work with after-school shuttles, athletic and activity trips. In ad- dition, the drivers and aides who work more than 30 hours a week
Continued on pg. 36
32 School Transportation News • JUNE 2019
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
