Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 1, 1994 TAG: 9412010079
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Yet Montgomery County bus drivers get fewer benefits and less time off than many drivers from other school systems who do the same job.
Two county bus drivers described their duties to the Montgomery County School Board this week.
"We're always on call which makes it difficult to have a second job," said Shawsville bus driver Laura Flight. "We're also required to have first-aid training ... and in January, all bus drivers will be subjected to random drug testing. These are all good things, but I don't really know of any other job in the marketplace today, requiring the same skills, that has such requirements."
Bus driver Patty Shull, who covers a route for Auburn High School and Bethel Elementary, said her bus is filled to capacity and many of the children on the bus have special needs.
"There is inclusion in the classroom, but what people don't know is there is inclusion on the buses too," Shull said. "Inclusion" is the term schools have given to their policy of including children with physical, emotional or mental handicaps in regular classrooms.
"Some [of the inclusion students] have aides at school, but on my bus, I'm the only adult there," Shull said. "I can't call for help that will be there immediately."
Shull added that school bus drivers need to be told about special needs children and how to deal with them if a problem should arise. That way, she said, drivers can be prepared. She also suggested that aides be used on the buses to help out the drivers.
In Montgomery County, full-time bus drivers are paid hourly and receive five days of sick leave. They get no personal leave days, no health insurance and no retirement package.
Russell Holladay, director of personnel, said the need for bus driver benefits comes up each year around budget time.
"It's admirable and they're probably deserving," Holladay said. However, it is expensive for an already limited school budget.
Pulaski County and Radford are the only other localities in the New River and Roanoke valleys which do not offer full-time benefits to their drivers. However, Radford City drivers are independently contracted and inclusion students are transported via specially-equipped buses.
"Our drivers get the same benefits as teachers and more," said Roanoke City Supervisor of Transportation Chauncey Logan. "They get health, dental and retirement, and they also get a $100 bonus for accident-free driving and a $100 bonus a year for perfect attendance."
Ralph Farmer, assistant supervisor of transportation for Roanoke County, said Roanoke is "just in line with the rest of the valley."
Flight, who described her bus as a mobile classroom, said the county is in a losing situation - it's losing its best bus drivers to localities that offer benefits.
"I would hope you would re-evaluate the position of school bus drivers," Flight said. "We really do need more bus drivers but we can't get them without benefits. We have to come up to par with the counties around us."
by CNB