Roy Exum
When the Hamilton County School Board met with a group of independent bus drivers on Tuesday night, it was the first time in my life I have been in a room where every person present wanted the same thing – and was unable to get it. So, in another first, I would like to issue a public plea because somebody real smart in today’s world of legalistic mumbo-jumbo may be able to share a solution.
Everybody in Chattanooga – save those who are still employed by the Durham School Services – wants our own Chattanooga independent drivers to take over the bus routes of our public schools. At the time the horrific tragedy took the lives of six Woodmore Elementary School students in November, Durham was the contract carrier for the Hamilton County school district. Following the November catastrophe, the overwhelming feeling is we can do it better, even if there is a greater expense, because safety is paramount.
Durham knows what they are doing; under the guidance of an international corporation known as National Express, the Illinois-based conglomerate serves over 500 school districts in 34 states and four provinces in Canada. They operate 21,500 buses. In total, they carry over 1,000,000 students every day and do it admirably as a whole.
But when the details of the Woodmore crash became clear, the belief became that certain Durham drivers lack the personal touch Chattanooga’s independent drivers have, many of the independents working with children in their own neighborhoods for years.
What both the school board and the local drivers want to do is return the county bus system to its own people but the way things are in this day and time, a school bus driver with his/her own bus is cash-strapped. A new bus costs $100,000 and that’s bare bones. Add cameras, the latest safety equipment, and – now – seat belts, and there is easily another $50,000.
If a driver has a short route, his bus can be full of riders but the driver can make hardly enough money for fuel, tires or – heaven help – a blown engine. That’s why many Hamilton County drivers want to form their own “bus companies,” so they can operate several buses, with drivers they will hire. (Yes, EVERY driver, whether employed by the school system or not, must pass all safety classes, tests and whatever else is required by the state.)
Hamilton County is the only school district in Tennessee that supplies its bus drivers with health insurance – which is a Godsend for anyone – and the right thing to do. Up until now, that has been no problem because each driver has been limited to only one bus. Now the school board consensus is to allow a driver to operate a “bus company” with 3-to-6 buses to make it financially advantageous.
And therein lies the puzzle: You must be an employee of the Department of Education to get on the health insurance plan. That’s the law. If you own a so-called “bus company,” you cannot remain as an employee of the Department of Education. That is also the law. Up until now, that has been no problem because each driver has been limited to only one bus. Now everybody is stymied.
The school board totally agrees that someone who owns multiple buses has a better chance of consolidating costs but – whoa! -- you can’t have the best of both worlds unless we have an expert in health insurance (the school system “self-insures”), or a legal mind who can show how a Department of Education employee can also own three or four buses. An email to me, that I will pass along, will be appreciated by the school board and the drivers alike. Please, don’t send me one that says it can’t be done; I’m looking for a winner. (royexum@aol.com)
The current plan is to give the independent drivers 20 new routes this fall. There are about 240 available and the independent drivers now have around 50 routes. A deepening mystery is why the independent drivers have been limited to just 20 routes when I am assured by numerous independents that they could service up to 100 routes every day beginning this August.
Apparently, there are many off-lease buses available “with five or six good years of service remaining.” The equipment, I am told, is road-ready right now, and the driver pool is also no problem, particularly once the individually-owned “bus companies” can advertise positions. But with the costs of buses ever rising, there is a pressing need to study a long-range solution and, ideally, the school district should run its own fleet. CARTA should also be involved when possible for older, more mature students.
The school board should create a committee to study systems the size of Hamilton County, taking care not to jeopardize the independent drivers who own, or are paying for, buses being used at present. If Durham is running in 34 states, I can show you 16 where they are not. Further, with the millions of dollars it takes to run 240 buses 176 days a year, I’ll venture some school district in America has already “invented a pretty good wheel.” Solution? Dispatch a “common sense” crowd to the Bluebird bus assembly plant in Fort Valley, Ga. (down around Macon, about a 4-hour drive) and gets some answers in the same day.
The school board should address two more problems with the buses now. Currently the buses are insured for the daily routes but the independent drivers much purchase additional insurance – which they pay -- for school outings, athletic events, and field trips. Solution? The school district needs ‘x-number’ of in-house drivers readily available who are completely insured by the school district. (This would further ease the financial burden on independents but the ‘employee’ problem persists.)
Secondly, one driver points out he works about three hours in the morning picking up students and another three hours in the afternoons taking them home. Yet his contract demands he be “on call” in between if weather should cause school to close early or some similar scenario arises. This means a driver must work a third-shift job for additional income and, as we know, that has been proven to be really dangerous. Solution? Sorry, no third-shift jobs before you drive a school bus.
Finally, when a new contract is finally re-written, use today’s language which includes random drug tests, some type of sheriff’s statement before each semester that will show any traffic violations, any misdemeanor or criminal charges, or other reasons said driver should not be driving our children.
Now, how can we get around the hurdle of a Hamilton County Department of Education employee running a sideline bus company?
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The Hamilton County Department of Education will soon assign over 30 in-bus adults to supervise behavior. A bus driver has no authority but these monitors, hopefully teachers who need extra income, should have the ability to suspend or totally ban troublemakers from the bus. And guess what group of students is the worst? According to the drivers, elementary children by far.
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Ben Coulter, the supervisor of the HCDE bus system, has been notified he will devote his full-time expertise to the system’s information technology and steps should be taken immediately to keep politics, the dreaded Good Ole Boy system, and “tenure” completely out of the process. A person with logistic experience is crucial because correcting faulty bus routes, streamlining others and getting the most out of the patch-work system is as vital as filling empty classrooms at under-utilized schools. The new appointee must be able to handle all complaints and concerns immediately, or if not within 24 hours, as we will soon learn as a bevy of lawsuits takes place.
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Hamilton County proper will not be a liable party in the forthcoming litigation, per one legal opinion. “The county funds the schools but has no say in the operation or the governance of the Department of Education. "Any judge will throw such a claim out as frivolous,” I was told.
royexum@aol.com