Despite pay raises last year, Peoria Unified School District’s bus driver woes are continuing into this school year.
The district kicked off the new semester, Aug. 10, canceling six buses with routes that impacted 13 schools.
The district has more than 700 bus routes for morning, mid-day and afternoon bus runs, serving approximately 12,000 students every day.
Spokeswoman Erin Dunsey said the district hopes to restore the routes by the end of the first quarter, but there is not a specific timeline, as it depends on hiring and training employees.
“We do have a few drivers who are in training right now and are in the process of trying to hire new drivers to restore these routes as quickly as possible,” Dunsey said.
She added that in many cases, the drivers are doing double runs to get additional students to school and/or running current routes very late to accommodate the multiple runs.
Parents or guardians should reach out to their school’s principal if they have no alternative way to school to determine what resources may be provided, including a potential list of volunteers in the community who may be willing to help, Dunsey said.
“We asked that any family willing to provide transportation assistance to another family to please complete a survey. The school principal would have access to those survey results and if a family reached out to them needing help, the principal could potentially try and connect families.”
Over the last few years, PUSD, like many school districts, has experienced drivers leaving the district and consequently had difficulty filling those positions.
In 2020, Peoria Unified had 125 bus drivers. That number fluctuated between 93 and 105 in 2021 and the district began the this school year with 83 eligible bus drivers.
With higher wages being paid in surrounding districts many PUSD drivers cited low pay as the major reason for the exodus.
To address pay, the school board unanimously approved a $3.01 pay grade increase last October, raising starting pay for new school bus hires to $17 an hour with up to 10 years of experience at the point of hire.
Previously, new PUSD school bus hires were paid $13.99, which was at the bottom of the pay rate compared with other competitive districts.
Since fiscal year 2019, PUSD has seen a 27% increase of resignations in classified staff, or non-teaching positions.
The district’s transportation division has been among the hardest hit.
Governing board member Bill Sorensen stated at a governing board meeting last October that the district still has a lot of work to do across the board when it comes to non-teaching staff, such as bus drivers, as well as bus driver assistants, who have not been paid competitively for a number of years.
He added a series of failed district overrides has put wages at a competitive disadvantage.
The district’s current 13% maintenance and operations override, which helps fund bus driver pay, is not on par with other districts, which are at 15%.
Philip Haldiman can be reached at phaldiman@iniusa.org, or on Twitter @philiphaldiman.
Meet Philip Haldiman is an award-winning journalist who most recently took first place for investigative reporting in 2023 from Arizona Newspapers Association. He joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2015, covering Sun City West his first year. Since 2016, he has covered the city of Peoria. Prior to coming to INI, he was a reporter with The Arizona Republic for seven years, covering numerous cities throughout the Valley. Before that, he was a freelance writer.
Community: Haldiman spearheads the Peoria Independent Hometown Heroes Awards program, honoring local individuals and businesses that give back to the community. He has hosted local candidate forums over the years and is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. Haldiman also served as a member of the Journalism Program Community Advisory Board at Glendale Community College. Outside journalism, Haldiman served as a member of the city of Peoria Complete Count Committee for the Census, 2019-2020. Lastly, he has served as a member of his HOA governing board since 2021.
Education: Arizona State University with a BA in Journalism and Mass Communications and a BA in Theater.
Random Fact: Haldiman is a fourth-generation Arizonan as well as wrote and produced an autobiographical comic book about his time spent in Hollywood and his life as a cult film star.
Hobbies: He enjoys hiking Arizona’s mountainous landscapes and is currently working on a play for the stage.
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