School Board Approves Multi-Route Bus Plan

There is a CDL requirement because the biggest bus a TA would drive is over a certain weight and carries over a certain number of passengers.

But still, I think there's a difference between having a CDL and being trained to drive a bus full of kids. I think hiring a bus company would be a good choice for liability issues as opposed to having a county employee driving.

 

Well, I would hope so! You mean that don't do that already?

 

the scary answer to that is 'no'. She (my neighbor) just rode with another driver a week before school, and practiced. This was many years ago for her (like 5 or 6) and apparently they are about to change some of the 'requirements', which is a good thing, for sure.

But I, like Cleo and SB, had HS students as our bus drivers, way back, when they first invented the wheel and I rode the bus....:mrgreen:

 

So did I - but back then, things were alot different than they are now! :lol:

 

Well it looks like we HAVE come a long way from having HS students drive. I just checked out some vacancies in the school district:

EC Teacher Assistant/Bus Driver
Teacher Assistant/Bus Driver
Custodian/Bus Driver
Office Support/Bus Driver (6 Hours)
Child Nutrition/Bus Driver
Child Nutrition Assistant/Bus Driver
Office Support II/Bus Driver

It would seem that the only people in the school exempt from driving a bus are teachers, principals and the students.

 

You get three days of County training (paid as part of your regular wages), then some on-the-road time with an instructor. Then YOU are responsible for obtaining your CDL (It's about $100 and the county does not reimburse you). If you fail your CDL requirements, you lose your job.

Apparently, you don't need your CDL for the training because there are no kids in the bus at that time.

 

I guess they combine some of these jobs with bus driving to save some $$ on salaries. But I think you'd get more people interested in those positions if they didn't have to drive a bus and vice-versa.

 

have you seen the salaries? Girl, they are the bottom of the barrel on the State pay grade system.....its pitiful.

 

Yes it is. I'm sure that extra salary from driving a bus helps them out, but I don't think they should pay for the CDL, the county should.

 

I was told the county doesn't pay because they're afraid people would get the CDL and quit shortly after. BUT...they will pay for the 3+ days of your salary for on-site and on the road training? That's three days out of the TA's classroom.

I like how they can see this point, but not the fact that the philosophy as a whole (having TAs et al drive) is robbing the district of qualified and motivated candidates. My wife's a damn good TA to the EC kids. I hope her replacement is just as good.

 

Yeah, there is no way I would drive a bus full of other people's kids. As sue happy as folks are, nuh uh! No thank you.

 

Yeah, I know - but I'm saying if these were all separate positions it would cost them more, plus benefits and stuff. Seems they could separate them and for those interested in driving - add that on to the salary.

I agree JayP, there are probably LOTS of people who would do a better job in either area if they just had one position or the other. I would think there'd be people who'd like to drive am/pm and not have to be with kids all day, just looking for part-time work and $$.

 

I don't think separate positions are the answer here. I think it's a separate company that's the answer. Let a whole other entity carry benefits for the drivers, liability insurance, training, etc. Yes, keep SOME dedicated JoCo employees to drive SOME routes and do field trips, shuttle sports teams etc as necessary, but for daily routes that don't change a whole lot - hire a bus transportation company.

Just my opinion of course, I'm all for outsourcing. For all I know, there's no local company that provides such a service.

 

Heck, give me a bullhorn and some pepper spray, and I'LL drive a bus 5 days a week. :hurray:

 

Why would drivers even get benefits, period? It's a couple hours a day job. MOST pt jobs do not offer benefits.

I do not agree that a seperate company should do it. I think should remain in the school system, not outside of it.

 

I mentioned the benefits as part of my suggestion of having a separate company do the work. Maybe under that plan the company's drivers would be full-time and get benefits, maybe not. We wouldn't care as long as they were trained, professional and cost-effective. Heck, even having the separate company own the buses could save us maintenance money, insurance money and gas money.

Can you elaborate about why you'd like to see the jobs stay in the school system? I'd like to understand your position better.

 

MOST PT jobs do not require a person to work what looks like 2 PT jobs, but add up to more hours than regular 40-hour FT jobs. If JCS don't give them benefits, they should. Good-quality TA make a big difference in a classroom and how much personalized attentiona a teacher can give. Without benefits, the quality would go way down. As it is, there are some that are absolutely wonderful and others that need to go find some other job that suits them better, but they stay, year after year.

 

My TA wife gets benefits. And she also does early morning care before school and gets a separate check for that. So it's like a PT and a FT job right now

My wife likes her job a lot and she can see the difference she's making in the classroom.

 

I also think outsourcing makes sense. The only concern I have about that is the student's safety. The school system would lose control of things like background checks. If we can make sure that was covered, I think it would be great. It would have to be a statewide change though, I think. The state pays to replace worn out buses. New buses due to growth come out of the county pocket (which is why the county would rather use the buses they have until they wear out rather than get more buses). That system would have to change in order to outsource.


I thought we started staggering schools to share buses years ago. Did that change or are they just switching things up a bit because of growth?

 

If you don't mind me asking, how did she get out of having to drive a bus until now? Most of the reasons I had heard were medical, but then they would never be able to drive a bus. I would think that if she didn't have to drive now, that she wouldn't have to drive next year either.