The bus driver shortage, pay raises and benefits were among the top discussions Tuesday at the Limestone County school board work session.

Superintendent Dr. Tom Sisk proposed three changes to the policies regarding bus drivers that will take effect over the next two years, if approved.

The first could take effect Feb. 1 and would increase pay from $10 to $15 per hour for bus drivers. Sisk explained most field trips are three hours minimum, but almost all of the trips are self-funded, meaning little to no additional cost for the district.

“Ninety-nine percent of the trips are self-funded through student fees, so though each bus might cost $15 more, we put 35 or 40 kids on a bus and (charge) them $1 or $2 more,” he said.

Rusty Bates, director of transportation, told the board he had already mentioned the possible raise to bus drivers.

“It raised a lot of eyebrows,” he said, adding the new rate would put Limestone County Schools on par with a lot of other districts.

Board member Earl Glaze said he wasn’t sure $15 would be enough. Sisk invited the board to revisit the issue in June and consider going higher.

The second proposed change would increase pay for substitute bus drivers to $70 per day, or $35 for morning routes and $35 for afternoon routes. Currently, subs are paid $25 per route for a total of $50.

Sisk estimated the cost to be around $24,000 per year and said the effect could take place in August.

The third change would take about two years, he said, and would require those who sponsor a sport, club or extracurricular activity to identify an adult who will go through and successfully complete bus driver certification. The adult would serve as a backup if the assigned bus driver is unavailable.

“This proposal would also allow them to use their club funds or sporting funds to pay or reimburse an individual for becoming certified,” Sisk said. “So Mr. Bates, under the plan, would still get the driver, but if that driver fell through at the last minute, they would have backup.”

Bates told board members field trips were being canceled due to lack of available bus drivers. At one point, he said, a band was forced to skip a performance because its assigned driver was unavailable. If approved, the new policy would require one backup driver per bus required to transport students.

However, the goal is to get more drivers hired. To that end, Bates is hosting a public meeting for anyone interested in learning more about becoming a bus driver with LCS.

The meeting is 6 p.m. Monday, Jan. 14, at the central office on the corner of Green and Jefferson streets in Athens. Bates said the meeting would be an open forum for those who wanted to ask questions as well as receive information on how and where to obtain a license.

For more information, call 256-232-5130.

Vacation

Dr. Mark Isley, executive director of operations and human resources, proposed changes to the board on a policy that could be eliminated.

Under current policy, 12-month employees can earn one paid vacation day per month with a maximum accrual of 30 days. Anything over 30 that is unused by June 30 is automatically paid back at a rate of the annual salary divided by 240 then multiplied by the number of unused days. Employees can also request for payouts twice annually and at retirement.

Board chairman Bret McGill said the program has cost the district “in excess of $100,000” each of the last two years and could not be budgeted for, something Sisk said would change.

Under the proposal, employees who were eligible for vacation buyback would get one payment annually and for six days maximum, or half the days they had accrued in the year previously. They would also have to have at least 12 days accrued, meaning they must be an employee of the district for at least a year, Isley said.

McGill called it a “horrible” and “insane” policy during the work session. He told The News Courier Wednesday that in reviewing his own business practices and talking with those who work under him, he couldn’t find anyone else who handled vacation pay the way LCS does.

“We need to change policy so we don’t pay out anybody that gets more than 30 days, they just lose it,” he told Sisk at the work session.

McGill emphasized the goal is to do what’s best for the district as well as employees. He suggested only allowing vacation buyback for 12-month employees who earn less than $70,000 in annual salary. Currently, any 12-month employee is eligible.

Other suggestions from board members included regular reminders of how many vacation days an employee has accrued and doing away with the program entirely.

Meanwhile, Sisk suggested doing away with the 30-day cap but implementing the six-day buyback maximum.

“If we’re looking at cutting costs, we talked about cutting maintenance guys, we talked about them not driving trucks home, we talked about parking buses at schools — all those things combined do not save the kind of money (eliminating) vacation buyback could save, and those things are hurting employees more than the vacation buyback,” McGill said.

Other business

In other business, the board discussed:

• An amendment to the sick leave policy that would allow a principal or supervisor to require a doctor’s excuse or other justification for three consecutive missed days of work instead of the current policy’s five days;

• Contract proposal for Chief School Financial Officer Kim Hubbard; and

• State report cards for schools in the district and the district as a whole.

The board’s next regular meeting will be 6 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 15, at Elkmont High School.