BENTONVILLE -- The School District remains short on bus drivers, though the situation has improved a bit since the district implemented a pay raise in September.
The district started the school year needing about 10 more drivers to be fully staffed. The district now needs eight more drivers, said Chris DeWitt, director of transportation.
Average pay
The average pay for a school bus driver in the United States was $14.38 per hour as of May 2014, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Source: Staff Report
In September, the School Board granted drivers hired since June 2012 a $1-per-hour increase. The pay schedule for those drivers ranges from $15.43 to $20.75 per hour.
Drivers hired before June 2012 are on a different schedule that pays between $20.61 and $28.22 per hour.
The district also put all drivers on the salary "step" that is appropriate for their level of experience. A conversion several years ago in the way drivers were paid resulted in drivers with similar levels of experience making dissimilar wages.
The combined financial impact of those moves to the district was estimated at $133,000 for the fiscal year.
DeWitt said he believes the pay raise has made an impact.
"We have hired some additional drivers. Some have come over from other districts," he said.
A few more people will take their commercial driver's license test within the next month to drive for the district, DeWitt said. Some of those people are teachers.
DeWitt expressed optimism the district could soon get its driver shortage down to as little four. That would be the closest the district has gotten to fully staffed in the eight years he's been with the district, he said.
"We don't just hire anybody who applies," DeWitt said. "We still do full background checks. We want to make sure it's the right people behind the wheel."
To help make up for the shortage, DeWitt started to drive morning and afternoon routes himself this school year. It's the first time he's done that on a regular basis, he said. Others at the transportation office drive routes as well.
Keeping an adequate number of bus drivers is a persistent concern among school districts not just in Northwest Arkansas, but across the country.
The School Board, in addition to approving the pay raise, also approved a $50-per-month bonus for drivers who have perfect attendance. The Rogers School District has offered the same bonus for at least a few years.
Bentonville decided to offer the bonus because on an average day, 11 drivers -- 10 percent of the driver pool -- are absent. Those absences create inefficiencies, and the safest drivers are those who know the routes and the students, district officials said.
Seventy-nine drivers qualified for the bonus in September and 65 drivers qualified for it in October. Fifty-four drivers, about half of the district's drivers, qualified for the bonus both months, according to data provided by Dena Ross, the district's chief operating officer.
The district transports more than 7,000 students per day, Ross said.
"We've got to look at it very strategically, because we want to keep the kids safe, but be as efficient and cost-effective as we can as well," she said.
Other local districts are considering offering the kind of bonus Rogers and Bentonville offer, Ross said.
The Springdale School District has 145 drivers and transports about 15,000 students per day, according to the district's website.
Springdale does not offer its drivers an attendance bonus. Administrators have discussed ways of attracting and retaining more drivers, spokesman Rick Schaeffer said. He declined to go into specifics of those discussions.
NW News on 12/01/2016