The Williamson County school board is looking at ways to resolve problems stemming from a shortage of school bus drivers, which is causing longer rides for students across the county.
The school system has 17 bus driver openings and has been forced to spread the uncovered routes among the roughly 240 remaining drivers, Superintendent Mike Looney said at a school board work session Thursday.
The system has had a hard time filling the shortage because its pay rate for drivers — which tops out at just more than $15 per hour — isn’t competitive with other bus driving jobs, Looney said.
“We’ve been ramping up our recruiting efforts,” Looney said. “One of the biggest hurdles to getting people to commit is we don’t pay competitively.”
School officials in October plan to introduce a proposal aimed at filling the shortage through more attractive compensation, Looney said.
“We’re trying to find some sort of tipping point where we can attract candidates but also save taxpayer dollars,” Looney said.
The driver shortage was among a range of topics the newly structured 12-member board discussed at the four-hour work session. Half of the 12-member board is new after three incumbents opted not to run for re-election and three others were voted out during August’s election.
The board is scheduled to meet on Monday night to take up another staff shortage — this one for teachers to handle school-age child care, commonly referred to as the extended hours program.
Some schools have had trouble filling openings for teachers who operate the after-hours program, Looney said. Part of the problem there, too, is compensation for teachers, which is slightly more than $9 per hour.
The board on Monday will weigh a temporary pay rate increase for substitute teachers through the end of this month to use as a stopgap measure until the schools can find permanent teachers for the program.
The new school board chairman and vice chairman also will be elected at the Monday’s meeting.
During Thursday’s work session, some of the board’s recently elected members proposed taking up a resolution on Monday coming out against the state’s adoption of Common Core standards.
Members instead scheduled a special meeting for 6 p.m. Oct. 6 to discuss a resolution concerning the federal education standards.
The school system has 17 bus driver openings and has been forced to spread the uncovered routes among the roughly 240 remaining drivers, Superintendent Mike Looney said at a school board work session Thursday.
The system has had a hard time filling the shortage because its pay rate for drivers — which tops out at just more than $15 per hour — isn’t competitive with other bus driving jobs, Looney said.
“We’ve been ramping up our recruiting efforts,” Looney said. “One of the biggest hurdles to getting people to commit is we don’t pay competitively.”
School officials in October plan to introduce a proposal aimed at filling the shortage through more attractive compensation, Looney said.
“We’re trying to find some sort of tipping point where we can attract candidates but also save taxpayer dollars,” Looney said.
The driver shortage was among a range of topics the newly structured 12-member board discussed at the four-hour work session. Half of the 12-member board is new after three incumbents opted not to run for re-election and three others were voted out during August’s election.
The board is scheduled to meet on Monday night to take up another staff shortage — this one for teachers to handle school-age child care, commonly referred to as the extended hours program.
Some schools have had trouble filling openings for teachers who operate the after-hours program, Looney said. Part of the problem there, too, is compensation for teachers, which is slightly more than $9 per hour.
The board on Monday will weigh a temporary pay rate increase for substitute teachers through the end of this month to use as a stopgap measure until the schools can find permanent teachers for the program.
The new school board chairman and vice chairman also will be elected at the Monday’s meeting.
During Thursday’s work session, some of the board’s recently elected members proposed taking up a resolution on Monday coming out against the state’s adoption of Common Core standards.
Members instead scheduled a special meeting for 6 p.m. Oct. 6 to discuss a resolution concerning the federal education standards.
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