PENDER COUNTY — After several years of struggling to keep bus drivers employed, a new plan of action to help Pender County Schools recruit and retain workers was on the table at a recent school board meeting.
READ MORE: Pender school board upheld Topsail coach, bus driver firing, one member dissents
Staff presented the board of education with a plan that would require $731,000 to cover pay increases and purchase new bus radios. The proposal would have to be brought before the county commissioners in February to get the funding, as the FY 2024-2025 budget doesn’t cover it.
Pender County Schools was allotted $28.9 million from the county general fund for operating expenses and $2.9 million for capital outlay expenses; Port City Daily asked Pender County Schools how much of the budget has already been spent, but did not hear back by press.
If approved by commissioners, staff wants to implement the plan immediately.
Commissioner and former school board member Brent Springer told Port City Daily in a phone call he’s not sure how he would vote without knowing details — “but I will hear them out, just like the other commissioners will.”
Pender County Schools is short 10 bus drivers and has more than 110 school buses and 100 drivers. The district also has 15 bus monitors to help supervise students and their bus behaviors. The staffing shortage has been an ongoing issue for the last several years, with low pay and poor work environments cited as the main reasons why, according to Tuesday’s presentation.
Superintendent Brad Breedlove said the shortage “continues to get harder and harder each year in order to resolve.”
The plan recommended by staff came from feedback they received from bus drivers, transportation staff, students and parents. One of the main topics in the responses was a need for higher pay.
Breedlove told the board Pender County can stand to be more competitive.
Staff is proposing raising bus drivers’ starting pay from $16.26 to $17.75 hourly, and bus monitors’ starting pay from $16.07 to $17.51. Pender County has lower salaries for bus drivers than other nearby districts. For example, Brunswick County’s starting pay for bus drivers is $17.51 and New Hanover County’s is $18.87.
“This is a big step for Pender County Schools,” Breedlove said. “This would allow us to be extremely competitive across the system where people will want to work for Pender County Schools and drive for Pender County Schools.”
Breedlove proposed the idea of a three-tired bus route system to tackle the current system’s challenges, though staff has yet to devise a specific model for it so a solution was not presented at Tuesday’s meeting. However, staff plans to come back to the board with an official proposal “in coming weeks.”
The current system has 93 bus routes driven twice a day — morning and afternoon. Each driver works approximately four to six hours per day, which can vary depending on traffic, weather and extra routes that need to be driven.
Being short 10 drivers, Breedlove said 10 of the routes have to run with substitute drivers; some bus drivers have to run double routes when subs aren’t available. And if a bus driver calls out sick or needs time off for an injury, the workload gets heavier.
Another issue Breedlove pointed out is a lack of communication between bus drivers and schools. Currently, the county relies on drivers to have their own cellphone to communicate, as buses aren’t equipped with radios.
“That is not effective at all,” Breedlove stated.
In addition to increasing pay, staff is requesting $400,000 to purchase 120 radios to be installed in every bus, 25 base stations and mobile radios for administrative support on the backend. Breedlove stated it will help keep track of students and gave an example of trying to locate a student who took the bus instead of going to the car-rider line where their parents are waiting. Administrative support at the school will be more effective as people can ask via radio if the student got on the bus, and the driver can easily and immediately respond.
“That happens all the time,” Breedlove said. “Now, imagine you don’t have radios, and try to connect with a bus driver who isn’t answering the phone because they’re driving … something as simple as that is now an ordeal.”
Some school board members agreed it could be beneficial for drivers, particularly when they are in remote areas, where cellphone signals are sparse.
Vice Chair Don Hall requested staff look into the frequencies used and whether or not a repeater will be required. Repeaters, often located on radio towers, pick up weaker signals and retransmit them at a higher level to extend the signal over a longer distance. They’re not always required, especially if a radio is being used in close-range areas with good signal, but they can be useful for long-range communication where signal strength is poor.
Hall advised against using high frequency radios, in case a radio tower were to go out during a storm — “without a repeater, it’s essentially worthless.”
“The lower the frequency, the farther it goes without a repeater, but the more difficult the installations are and keeping the antennas right,” Hall said. “It’d be spotty, but it’s better than nothing.”
Board member Jason Spivey said policies need to be developed around the use of the radio channels and questioned how emergencies are going to be called in with radios in play.
“Are we gonna get with, maybe, Sheriff Cutler or 911 communications?” he asked. “There needs to be a policy enforced that this is not a play around channel.”
“When it comes to children and a bus driver in the middle of nowhere, if we’re talking about the cellphone ain’t working — I don’t want no delays,” he continued.
Pender County Schools Attorney Brandon McPherson replied in emergency situations, drivers are expected to call 911 first. If they have no cell service, the next course of action is to radio-in for the school to call 911 for them.
In addition to finding the right radio frequency, Hall requested staff look into any possible avenues to use a radio for emergencies, even direct channels between buses and law enforcement.
Breedlove also listed three additional areas of the work environment that need to be improved upon when it comes to bus drivers: access to school facilities, kindergarten through second grade bus tags, and disciplinary measures for students acting out on the bus.
“Minor things,” Breedlove said, “but when you add them all up, these are big issues for bus drivers.”
Breedlove said drivers have difficulty accessing the schools — to “use the bathroom, for example” — because their badges aren’t working properly. Though, he added staff has already begun getting bus drivers working badges.
Also, K-2 students have tags on their backpacks indicating they can get off the bus with an older sibling, which Breedlove said staff needs to be more thorough with. Pender County Schools does not allow K2 students to be released unless there is someone there to pick them up, and the tags allow an older sibling to be that person. Without proper tagging, bus drivers and monitors can have a hard time knowing who the students are and ensuring they get off the bus safely — “especially if they’re a sub.”
Breedlove also discussed insufficient disciplinary actions for misbehaving students on the bus. Oftentimes, after a parent has been contacted and the student receives a referral for ongoing bad behavior, the student can be sent to in-school-suspension. Breedlove claimed this course of action doesn’t fix the student’s behavior problem on the bus, it just causes them to miss class.
“We need to remove that student from the bus for a day or two and see if that corrects the behavior,” he said.
Staff is considering bringing on bus mentors to help new and substitute bus drivers acclimate to the job, give advice on disciplining students, and feel more supported in their work environment.
The next step is to take the finalized plan before the county board of commissioners in February for approval.
Tips or comments? Email info@portcitydaily.com
Want to read more from PCD? Subscribe now and then sign up for our morning newsletter, Wilmington Wire, and get the headlines delivered to your inbox every morning.
