Muscogee County School Board rejects controversial proposal to help solve this issue

Plagued by too few bus drivers and too many complaints about overcrowded and late buses, a majority of the Muscogee County School Board rejected on Monday night a controversial proposal from two board members to help solve the problem. The majority instead asked the administration to come back next month with a more comprehensive recommendation, allowing representatives more time to consider options.

The proposal came from representatives John Thomas of District 2 and Frank Myers of District 8, the nine-member board’s most outspoken critics of the administration. They want the Muscogee County School District to raise the minimum pay for bus drivers to $17 per hour. That’s an increase of 16 percent from the current rate of $14.66 per hour.

“Thereafter, every bus driver employee shall be rewarded with a $1 raise per year for each year he or she serves the district,” the proposal says.

Monday night, Thomas said he added this provision, which was too late for the agenda: The $1 per hour raises would be capped when the driver reaches $22 per hour.

The proposal also calls for a $500 sign-on bonus for each driver after six months of service and an additional $500 retention bonus on the one-year anniversary of their hiring.

After a 70-minute discussion at last week’s work session and nearly another hour of debate at Monday night’s meeting, the proposal failed in a 2-6-1 vote. Myers and Thomas were the lone yes votes. Vanessa Jackson of District 3 abstained.

Myers vowed to bring back the proposal, or a tweaked version of it based on board member comments, for another vote next month.

During last week’s work session, MCSD human resources chief Kathy Tessin estimated it would cost approximately $300,000 per year to implement the proposal. She presented the board with an overview of bus driver pay history and compared the current rates to other districts in the state.

In the past four years, the rate for entry-level bus drivers in MCSD has increased by 9.5 percent while all other non-maintenance support personnel has increased between 3.5 percent and 5 percent.

Here are the other entry-level bus driver rates Tessin showed the board: Bibb County (Macon) $17.48, Atlanta $17, Fulton County $16.48, Chatham County (Savannah) $15.17 and Columbus Consolidated Government (Metra) $15.15.

District 6 representative Mark Cantrell noted MCSD’s entry-level bus drivers are paid less than all of them. Tessin noted she doesn’t know whether those organizations match MCSD by providing their bus drivers with benefits such as insurance and disability. Thomas noted, “You can’t eat benefits.”

MCSD regular-education bus drivers can earn as much as $18.56 per hour with 30 years of experience and a commercial driver’s license. The rate for special-education bus drivers ranges from $16.16 to $20.47.

Out of MCSD’s 217 bus drivers, Tessin said, 62 of them already earn at least $17 per hour. MCSD has 17 vacancies, she said last week. Operations chief David Goldberg said Monday night that number under 10 now. Thomas disputed that figure, but transportation director Herbert Hill said eight drivers are in the training class and should be able to fill the shortage.

As the debate started Monday night, Myers declared, “Our transportation system is in a crisis. It’s a personnel issue and a leadership issue, and we can solve more than half of the problem if we implement John’s proposal. Kids are being left on the side of the road, not being picked up. This plan is not perfect by any means. But, tonight, we’re going to find out who really is for the kids. We’ve got to do something.”

Pat Hugley Green of District 1 urged the administration to consider pay raises for all employees and called the proposal “a knee-jerk response,” equating it with another “knee-jerk response” that created MCSD’s police department after the administration had presented the board its budget this year.

The pay issue needs to be “further considered and not just dangle $17 an hour as a quick fix or opportunity to have soundbites and headlines and waving the flag that we’re doing something,” Green said.

Myers replied, “The word knee jerk makes me want to throw up.” The proposal comes from not a “special love for bus drivers” but because of the “crisis.”

Jackson said doing nothing isn’t an option. Board chairwoman Kia Chambers, the county-wide representative, agreed and said the bus drivers are in a special situation because of the shortage.

“I totally agree there should be a pay raise,” Chambers said. “… The thing that makes this a little more complex is we do have to consider the entire district.”

Chambers thanked Thomas and Myers for the proposal, “but I can’t support it today,” she said. “. . . We haven’t discussed where the $300,000 would be coming from. There are a lot of unknowns.”

That’s why, Chambers said, she wants the administration to bring the board an alternative plan.

Cantrell, the board’s vice chairman, made a substitute motion, seconded by Jackson, to table the Thomas/Myers proposal. Cantrell said one week isn’t enough time to make such a major decision.

“I commend John and Frank for putting this together,” Cantrell said. “They might be 100 percent correct on what we need, but I want to find out more information.”

For example, Cantrell said, he wants to know what veteran bus drivers think about the proposal.

Laurie McRae of District 5 said she supports “some kind” of pay increase for bus drivers but spoke against giving “automatic increases every year. That’s not done in any other division.” She also asked for more time to consider other options and for the administration to bring an alternative proposal.

Board members convinced Cantrell to withdraw his substitute motion.

Cathy Williams of District 7 said, instead of this “arbitrary” proposal, she favors taking time for a more “comprehensive” approach and a “deep dive” to allow “the administration to do their job so I can do my job, which is to support or not support their proposal.”

Myers said, “I hope the administration comes back with something good for everybody, but we’ve been waiting for two years, and we haven’t heard a peep out of them.”

Based on the board’s direction three years ago, said superintendent David Lewis, the administration has been working on addressing the district-wide problem of salary compression, when job market conditions raise entry-level salaries while compensation for loyal employees stagnates. So MCSD is working on a plan to reward experienced bus drivers, Lewis said.

Green emphasized the administration’s proposal should also include “every other employment category.”

“Ditto,” Williams said.

Chambers praised the board for a robust but respectful debate.

Mark Rice, 706-576-6272, @MarkRiceLE.

This story was originally published September 17, 2018 at 9:21 PM.