Price of bus contracts may rise by $416,000
Drivers who own their own buses will get a raise
After months of back-and-forth, the Hamilton County school board is one step closer to finalizing a contract with its independent bus drivers.
The proposed plan would cost the district an additional $416,000, as the drivers who own and operate their own buses will receive a bump in compensation, Lee McDade, assistant superintendent of student services, told the board Thursday night.
The board voted to have McDade finalize a contract with the drivers, which allows the 35 independent drivers now receiving insurance from the school district to keep it. These drivers will also receive increased compensation, but are limited to only running one bus route.
There are 34 additional routes drivers can bid on, but these drivers will not receive insurance and will instead get a bonus of $9,500 each year.
“I think this is fair to the board and I also think this is fair to the contract drivers,” McDade said.
The school board made a push after the Nov. 21 Woodmore Elementary School bus crash in which six students were killed to hire more independent contract drivers, boasting about their safety record.
It costs the district about $397 a day for each route driven by an independent contract driver, and
$325 a day for each route covered by a driver from Durham School Services.
Durham provides the bulk of the county’s transportation, and the board is expected to renew its contract with the company in coming weeks, as Durham was the only one to reply to the board’s request for proposals issued in January.
McDade also announced that David Eaves will serve as the district’s new director of transportation, since Ben Coulter, who previously held the position, is now working in IT full time. Eaves previously worked for FedEx in Florida, serving as an operations manager.
School board member Kathy Lennon said she appreciates the due diligence the board has done with its transportation services, and hopes the board does the same thing when considering teacher compensation in this upcoming year’s budget.
“Our teachers are in the classroom every day, all day long, and work tirelessly, and I hope we all take that into consideration,” she said.
Earlier in the meeting Dan Liner, president of the Hamilton County Education Association, noted that teachers in the district receive a starting pay lower than those in neighboring districts and in Georgia.
“It’s time that we begin discussing what an increase in teacher salaries looks like for next year,” Liner told the board.
The budget proposed by the district for this upcoming year does not include raises for teachers, but has more than $33 million in additional requests.
During the board’s finance committee meeting Thursday night, school board member Joe Smith said the board needs to demonstrate to the Hamilton County Commission, which holds the district’s pursestrings, that it’s a good steward of resources.
“There is a pink elephant in the living room that no one wants to talk about,” Smith said. “We need some more money.”
School board member Karitsa Mosley Jones reminded the board that the school district hasn’t received an increase in funding as the result of a tax increase in 12 years. The annual growth money the district receives is not adequate, Mosley Jones said.
Mosley Jones also asked to see a budget that accounts for the potential decrease in federal money the district could receive due to President Donald Trump’s potential budget cuts to education. She also asked for a budget that accounts for the impact school-choice vouchers could have on the district if approved by the state Legislature this year.
School board finance chairwoman Tiffanie Robinson again emphasized the need for the district to budget strategically and forecast budgets for three years in advance.
School board members David Testerman and Rhonda Thurman said it’s hard to plan for the future without knowing what revenue is available.
Testerman said forecasting budgets “reminds me of kids filling out a Christmas list.”
Robinson said even if the budgets dip into the negatives, it would be helpful and likely help regain trust that the school district is wise with its finances.
Also during the public comment portion of the meeting, Michael McCamish, a resident of the unincorporated part of Signal Mountain and the father of a child at Nolan Elementary School, voiced frustration that a group is investigating the viability of launching a separate school district on the mountain.
McCamish said the mountain’s residents are already very privileged and the schools lack diversity, and he fears that launching a separate school district with Signal Mountain Middle/ High, Nolan and Thrasher Elementary will only make the mountain more isolated.
In the coming weeks, McCamish told the board, he and other parents will be working to fight this new district.
“I hope we can look to y’all as allies,” he said.
School board member Joe Wingate said he does not want the district to lose Hamilton County families or students, and supports McCamish. Lennon, who represents Signal Mountain, agreed.
Drew Buckner, Signal Mountain Middle/High School’s band director, said he and the other performing arts teachers across the district are asking for funding for more music, instruments, additional teachers and a county instrumental coordinator.
“You may or may not know that Hamilton County does not fund band and orchestra programs, there is no money for music, no money for instruments, for transportation for anything,” he said. “This is not the case anywhere else.”
The district only pays for a band instructor and students need more instruction, Buckner said, as band and orchestra is often the biggest group on a school’s campus. Some football teams have five coaches paid for by the district, he said.
“[Music] is the key to the change that we all want to see in our schools,” Buckner said.