Will receive pay bump as other districts paid substantially more
Posted
School bus driver pay
The following shows the starting hourly rate for school bus drivers with no prior experience at some Valley school districts. Some districts provide benefits such as health care as part of employment. Peoria Unified does, but Dysart does not.
Peoria Unified School District school bus drivers and other transportation department workers scored a win in an approval of a new $3.01 pay grade increase.
New school bus hires will receive $17 an hour with up to 10 years of experience at the point of hire.
The school board unanimously approved the increase at its Oct. 14 meeting.
The Peoria fleet has been severely understaffed with more than 25% of driver positions vacant, leading to route cancellations. Many drivers cited low pay as the major reason for the exodus.
PUSD bus driver trainer Andria Isler said the district has reached a critical staffing point and could fail had the increase not been approved.
She said the district averages a loss of an employee a week and could continue to lose drivers to Dysart.
“Many of our employees have applied, interviewed and accepted positions [at Dysart]. They are waiting to see the outcome of tonight’s vote to decide whether or not they are going to stay or resign,” she said. “We need to be capable of recruiting quality applicants to once again build up our department and be able to provide top-notch service to our community and students. It is not an option. We must be competitive with the surrounding districts. Period.”
The raises will cost the district $800,000 annually in the maintenance and operations budget.
As part of the approval, bus drivers who train new staff will receive an additional $1 an hour in addition to the employee’s assigned hourly bus driver rate. The approval treats bus driver positions as “hard to fill” and offers up to 10 years of experience, 1% per year increase, at the time of hire.
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. During the past year, PUSD lost nearly 35% of its drivers, causing the remaining drivers to make double runs and use non-bus vehicles for pickups and drop-offs.
Governing board member Bill Sorensen said 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%.
“As a Peoria district, our pay is often not comparable to surrounding districts,” he said. “I would like to thank the residents that voted yes on the override (last year) because that is going to provide some of that financial compensation that we need.”
The approved $3.01 pay raise is also applicable to currently employed, coordinators, dispatchers, preschool bus drivers and route specialists.
In addition to school bus drivers, currently employed transportation supervisors, mechanics and route assistants must hold a Commercial Driver’s License, so employees currently in these positions should also receive the $3.01 pay raise.
Officials said other transportation department positions will be reviewed through the annual budget process as part of the district-wide classified staff compensation review.
PUSD bus driver Joe Blare admonished the school board that it took this long to get to this point.
He said the system is very broke and the district should pay transportation workers what they are worth and what is commensurate with their responsibilities.
Transportation employees are working in excess of 55 hours a week and if you extrapolate that out, they are making only about $15.50 per hour, he said.
“That’s totally ridiculous. It’s totally unacceptable,” Blair said.” How can you expect them to do their job and drive a school bus. We had a trainer that was making $14.70 an hour. This is the gentleman who is in charge of all our trainers. He is responsible for us being legal, making sure we pass all our physicals. He’s making $14.70 an hour. That’s an insult, plain and simple. He left. We have a new gentleman stepping in that I am sure will do very well. But he needs to be paid what is commensurate with his responsibilities, just like our supervisors need to be paid what is commensurate with their responsibilities.”
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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