Central Regional School Board, Bus Drivers Finalize Contract

by Patricia A. Miller

Central Regional school bus drivers will now be paid by the hour, not by the number of runs, according to a new contract finalized by the Board of Education recently.

The drivers had worked without a contract for nearly two years. The new contract will run through June 30, 2016, Business Administrator Kevin O’Shea said.

“We have fundamentally changed our method of compensation to a method of paying our drivers based on how much time they actually work,” he said. “We believe this is fair to the board, the drivers, and to the public as a whole. We will continue to monitor our new system and work collaboratively with the union to make improvements as necessary.”

The actual salary amount will vary from driver to driver, based on how many hours they actually work each year. The contract - which dates back to 2012 - calls for pay freezes for the 2012-2013 and 2013-2014 school years, O’Shea said.

The third year of the contract (2014-15) calls for a pay reduction of 16.63 percent with an hourly rate schedule, and the fourth year includes an 8.18 percent increase from the third year, he said.

“New hires will now start at $15 per hour and the Board of Ed will only pay for single healthcare coverage,” O’Shea said. “All drivers will move into the same medical and prescription plans as the other staff in the district.”

The district will reimburse employees for any differences in co-pays or deductibles during the time between 7/1/2012 and 6/30/14, he said.

Drivers will be paid $16 per hour for any extra field trips, athletic trips, or other trips outside their normal routes each day.- Sick day payouts at retirement were aligned with the yeacher union contract.-

“In making all these changes, we believe we have brought our transportation department more into the 21st century,” O’Shea said. “We were one of the last districts in the sate to compensate drivers based on trips and runs and without regard to how much time was actually being put in.”