Laurens District 55 Ties Bus Driver Shortage to Pay Changes

LAURENS, S.C. — The bus delays that have frustrated Laurens County School District 55 families over the past week trace back to a pay change made at the start of the school year, according to Interim Superintendent Dr. Rhett Harris.

Harris said that while he was the district’s assistant superintendent of operations, he spotted what he considered overpayment in transportation and took the issue to the school board’s finance committee and then the full Board of Trustees. After he stepped into the interim role and reviewed the numbers with the district’s chief financial officer, he said, the problem proved larger than he first believed.

Under the old setup, full-time drivers were paid for a 7.5-hour day plus benefits, but some who picked up a midday run were also billing the district for those extra hours on top of the full day. Harris said the practice had gone on for more than two decades, with some time sheets showing 96 hours in a single week, and that the district paid drivers more than $300,000 in overtime last year.

The district now caps the regular day at 7.5 hours, still pays overtime past 40 hours a week and raised driver wages 5% at the start of the year. A rule already on the books also bars anyone from holding two full-time district jobs, such as driving a bus and working as a classroom aide.

Harris said some drivers who held two full-time roles had to pick one, and a few others resigned over the changes, which left the department without enough people to run every route on time.

The district has 46 bus drivers to carry about 3,800 students each day. On Friday, Nov. 6, leave and illness affected 17 buses, and the district moved students to an e-learning day on Monday, Nov. 9, before returning to its regular schedule Tuesday. The district told families that students who missed class because of the bus trouble would be excused, with no mark against them for truancy.

To keep students moving, Harris said the district is reviewing routes for efficiency, has drivers covering double routes, is using a school van for some pickups and has asked people with a commercial driver’s license to volunteer. He said the state has also reached out to offer help.

District 55 is hiring drivers with a CDL and can help applicants earn the license, a process that takes several weeks. Harris said he does not know how long it will take for service to return to normal, but the district will not go back to the old pay practice. Applicants can phone the district’s personnel office at 864-984-3568, and the office’s email address is [email protected].

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