The Cumberland County School Board is exploring ways to address the school system’s shortage of bus drivers.
The school system currently has 59 bus drivers, but is supposed to be fully staffed with 68. School Board Member Jon Matthews said some bus routes are taking over an hour and a half to complete.
“We’re violating our policy,” Matthews said. “I’m saying that because as a board member, you try to have an overall view. Whether it’s your kid, anybody else’s kid, if we are violating policy, we need to fix something. Something needs to happen.”
Matthews said a problem the school system is running into is that a good portion of the drivers do not participate in the insurance program, which is supposed to be an incentive. School Board Member Shannon Stout said the board needs to think of unique ways the school system could attract more bus drivers.
“I challenge you all to think out of the box, and some ways that we might be able to attract some folks that just want a little extra money, a little extra spending money, if they have the option of doing morning or evening, so they are not tied down on that time in between advertising either or.”
Matthews asked if the school system could pay extra money to the bus drivers who do not participate in the insurance program. The board concluded that, legally, they cannot incentivize workers to not participate in the insurance program.
Matthews then suggested financially incentivizing teachers to drive buses. School Board Member Travis Cole said that he did not think paying teachers more to drive buses was a good idea.
“So we are gonna pay teachers more to drive the bus than we are gonna pay the bus drivers?” Cole said. “Then the bus drivers are gonna say you can have it, let the teachers drive.”
Director of Schools Rebecca Farley said she has already tried getting teachers to drive buses earlier in the school year, but was unsuccessful.
“I did send out an email to every CCBOE person, and I did ask if you are interested in driving a bus, please let us know,” Farley said. “And I explained, we will help you get the training, we will pay for your physical, we will pay for you to take the test, all the things, and nobody reached out.”
Stout said she wants teachers to focus on teaching and not driving a bus. The board mentioned reaching out to county and city employees who have a license to drive a bus. Farley said the county passed a resolution several years ago to not allow that, as it would qualify employees for overtime pay.
The board will further discuss avenues to attract bus drivers at the board’s next work session.
