Need more evidence of the strain being put on school budgets? Look no further than a disturbing news item that ran last month in the Daily Herald of Roanoke, N.C.
The district eliminated at least 12 school bus driver positions due to budget constraints and will fill those vacancies with assistant teachers who are already on staff. The teachers were set to receive school bus driver training this summer.
By all accounts, Roanoke Rapids Grading School District is much accomplished and innovative. The school's Web site says that it was the first public school district in the state to offer 12 grades and the first to offer Kindergarten. It's won state and national awards for student achievement and boasts the largest number of National Board Certified teachers of any school district in North Carolina, which by the way can mean a 12 percent pay increase. During the upcoming 2009-2010 school year, it would seem that some of those teachers will be working even harder for their wages after the school board voted to eliminate school bus driver positions.
Doug Miller, RRGSD maintenance director, said the school planned to use money from the state for transportation costs to supplement the teachers' incomes.
“What we’re trying to do is provide enough work for teacher assistants. The state is cutting their funding," Miller told the Daily Herald. "We’re trying to keep them around because of the work they do. It’s because of them that we’ve had such good test scores.”
Here's hoping that the district's student safety statistics don't suffer as a result.
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3 years ago
Shame on them. Teacher aides need to be assisting in the classroom and bus drivers need to be driving buses. Yes, aides can be trained to drive a school bus, but the pressure being put on them to do so, in the name of keeping their job in the classroom, will not make them good drivers. Shame on this District for thinking that a professional driver can so easily be replaced. Let's pray an accident doesn't happen that will have them regreting this decision.
ReplyDeleteI am a ten year school bus driver in Texas (and a former student of Cumberland County Schools, NC) and in my school district, we have several school bus drivers who are also employed as teachers, aides, secretaries, subs, etc. and they get paid for both jobs. Those individuals chose to work both jobs and want to get paid for both jobs. Most school districts in Texas require coaches to drive a school bus for the ball games without pay. Most of those coaches are not confident and do not feel safe behind the wheel. I worked in a small district outside of Fort Worth in which the coaches were usually in small fender benders or scraping or bumping into something. I don't think any individual should ever be forced to drive a school bus. It takes a special individual with love and patience of children to drive a bus. You will never be good at something that you do not want to do.
ReplyDeleteI was let go as a teacher's assistant from the Cumberland County School System because I had a medical restriction on my CDL drivers licenses. I was told because of the budget cuts that they would only keep those who held a CDL. I worked 8 years of my life dedicated to the children and their academic learning needs. I seen this as unjust and thought they would have appreciated the children being safe first. I know of other teacher assistants who have medical issues that are capable of being in the classroom but not behind the wheel of a bus. It is sad that teacher assistants are put in the position of either driving or losing their pay/benefits. I wish someone would change the school boards and states way of thinking.
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