Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 15, 1990 TAG: 9005150314
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: BEDFORD/FRANKLIN
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
Nearly half the county's 109 part-time drivers were given a substantial pay raise Monday, three weeks after they publicly blasted Franklin County school officials for ignoring their pleas for pay equity.
"I think we made a difference in standing up and being heard," said Raine Clingenpeel, a spokeswoman for the drivers.
The School Board unanimously approved a plan that will give a $5.80-per-day raise to drivers below the top salary step. Next fall, the daily rate for beginning drivers is to increase from $20.50 to $26.30.
The board also signaled its intention to seek further raises for drivers in the 1991-92 school year to make the county's pay scale "totally competitive" with neighboring localities.
For years, Franklin school bus drivers have complained that all but the most senior drivers were underpaid.
Their frustration boiled over this year when their pay raises were deferred for a year in exchange for the School Board's paying for retirement benefits.
The drivers got the School Board's attention when they appealed to the Franklin County Board of Supervisors at an April 23 public hearing.
Monday, Superintendent Len Gereau called drivers' criticism "a little unfair" and presented documentation to show that in some respects Franklin bus drivers are better off than their counterparts in neighboring counties.
Franklin drivers receive four paid holidays, rate second in the region in hospitalization benefits and have a sick-leave system, Gereau said.
Though School Board members went along with Gereau's pay plan, some members criticized drivers for the "unjustified" plea to the supervisors.
"I certainly don't agree with anything that was said over there," said Herman Craig, a School Board member from Snow Creek.
Rocky Mount member Kathleen Holt reminded her colleagues that other employee groups - whose pay in recent years has failed to keep pace with that of teachers - have legitimate gripes as well.
"Because the bus drivers had a lobbyist, this is who got the most attention," Holt said.
by CNB