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ICBuses
Active Member
United States
15 Posts |
 Posted - 10/20/2007 : 06:29:55 AM
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Hello everyone, I'm looking to find the highest paid district in the country. Not really interested in working for a contractor, I'm a district man. Once I find that district, I want to go work for them. I am a career bus driver and want to make it worth my while.
I currently work for a district in Kansas City where we start drivers out at $13.35 and hour with a 5 hour guarantee. No benefits until the first year. Any info would be great!!
P.S. Please give me the name of your district when responding. |
Edited by - ICBuses on 10/21/2007 11:02:55 AM
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disneynuts
Advanced Member
USA
220 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2007 : 08:51:54 AM
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The last issue of either School Bus Fleet or School Transportation News had that info. I have already got rid of them. Maybe you could a search on their website.
Hope this helps. |
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IC
Top Member
USA
3413 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2007 : 09:26:12 AM
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Yes, it was in the last issue of School Bus Fleet magazine....Top 100 district fleets.
Looks like Columbus City (OH) had the top starting pay (but a lot of districts had "n/a" for starting pay) at $18.50. It didn't say if bullet proof vests are provided...
We (Fairfax County, VA) are near the top at $16.57 with a 35 hour a week guarantee. And full bennies kick in immediately. However, this is a high cost-of-living area.
http://www.fcps.edu/fts/tran/opportunities/ |
Edited by - IC on 10/20/2007 09:27:20 AM |
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Sam
Advanced Member
United States
390 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2007 : 1:35:37 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by IC
It didn't say if bullet proof vests are provided...
LOL I was thinking the same thing!
Pinellas County (Clearwater/St Pete, Florida) has a 4-6 week training (paid) and starts at app. $12.00/hour.
New drivers are "on probation" for the first 3 months. For the first 6 months, the district holds back $1/hour, which is paid after 6 months (I think there are other stipulations, this is a newer program).
Drivers are eligible for benefits (not fully paid by employer) as soon as they are made "permanent." I was made perm. in 3 days, others take as long as 3 months, not sure how that works.
We bid by seniority on routes and buses at the beginning of each school year. All routes are minimum 6 hours, with most hovering between 8 and 9. Substitutes are guaranteed 8 hours a day, with plenty of overtime available. Subs also get an extra $.85 per hour. We also have what I call "hazard pay" for routes with special needs kids, or disciplinary schools. That is an extra $.35 per hour.
SEIU is our Union here, but Florida is a "right to work" state, so there's no striking, just bargaining. We're getting up to a 4% raise this year, based on years of service, with a slight increase in our insurance costs.
Insurance is reasonable, in my opinion. My husband works for the school board also, so we are a "two-board" family. Our insurance is $120/month, and that covers the two of us and three children. We have Aetna, and our co-pay is $25 for a regular doctor, $35 for a specialist. We have pretty good dental and vision coverage too, I'm happy with it.
This is a high cost-of-living area, but if you plan ahead there are ways to do it. We lived in a cheap apartment for a few years, and just bought a house in another county. I think it's worth it, we are minutes from the Gulf of Mexico and Tampa Bay, where the swimming and fishing are awesome! If you're into city life, St Petersburg is here, Tampa is just across Tampa Bay, and Orlando is about 90 minutes away.
If you have children, I would investigate the school districts. There is a lot of upheaval going on with school choice and the dissipation of forced busing. New district lines are being drawn, and surrounding counties are changing too. Where you choose to live is not necessarily where your children will attend school.
http://www.pinellas.k12.fl.us/HR/support.html |
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Rich
Top Member
United States
5768 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2007 : 8:26:21 PM
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| Starting pay in my area for districts is in the $20.00 range, give or take five dollars in either direction. In my particular district, starting pay is $22.00 an hour. |
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ICBuses
Active Member
United States
15 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2007 : 9:04:50 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Rich
Starting pay in my area for districts is in the $20.00 range, give or take five dollars in either direction. In my particular district, starting pay is $22.00 an hour.
Who's your school district? |
"When you cut me I bleed School Bus Yellow with Black lines in it." GH |
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IC
Top Member
USA
3413 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2007 : 9:06:23 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Rich
Starting pay in my area for districts is in the $20.00 range, give or take five dollars in either direction. In my particular district, starting pay is $22.00 an hour.
I thought NY mainly used contractors? I do see NYC and Buffalo in the top 100 at numbers 1 and 32. Do the Upstate districts you refer to have less than 180 buses?
God Bless SBF...but these numbers do seem skewed. Fairfax County is listed as having lost 159 buses since last year, but supposedly still has a fleet of 1600 buses....1500 is the number I hear most frequently. The daily student count I hear most often is 110,000, yet the article lists 127,000 (no way that's right).
Fairfax County is ranked 14th in the article, while Prince George's and Montgomery Counties, Maryland (both just across the Potomac River) rank number 11 and 13, respectively. Both districts are smaller than Fairfax by a fair margin.
The whole thing appears to be inaccurate...Chicago Public Schools is listed as driving 50 million miles a year, in 2475 buses, to transport only 27,000 students....while Clark County, Nevada transports a whopping 154,860 students, in 1241 buses and only racks up only 20 million miles per year.
Either I'm missing something...or there's numerous typos in this article.... |
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Kodie
Top Member
United States
2028 Posts |
Posted - 10/20/2007 : 10:09:53 PM
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| Our school district starts at $16.80 for a full time driver and its suppose to go up by $1 in a few months. We dont use a contractor THANK THE LORD! |
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ICBuses
Active Member
United States
15 Posts |
Posted - 10/21/2007 : 06:16:58 AM
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Couple of questions/statements I would like to add.
#1 - Which month was the article printed for the rankings of the school districts?
#2 - Please state the school districts you work for.
I'm seriously looking to make a move and any information is greatly appriciated.
Thanks for all the input so far, it's great!! ;) |
"When you cut me I bleed School Bus Yellow with Black lines in it." GH |
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Rich
Top Member
United States
5768 Posts |
Posted - 10/21/2007 : 07:34:36 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by IC
quote:
Originally posted by Rich
Starting pay in my area for districts is in the $20.00 range, give or take five dollars in either direction. In my particular district, starting pay is $22.00 an hour.
I thought NY mainly used contractors? I do see NYC and Buffalo in the top 100 at numbers 1 and 32. Do the Upstate districts you refer to have less than 180 buses?
God Bless SBF...but these numbers do seem skewed. Fairfax County is listed as having lost 159 buses since last year, but supposedly still has a fleet of 1600 buses....1500 is the number I hear most frequently. The daily student count I hear most often is 110,000, yet the article lists 127,000 (no way that's right).
Fairfax County is ranked 14th in the article, while Prince George's and Montgomery Counties, Maryland (both just across the Potomac River) rank number 11 and 13, respectively. Both districts are smaller than Fairfax by a fair margin.
The whole thing appears to be inaccurate...Chicago Public Schools is listed as driving 50 million miles a year, in 2475 buses, to transport only 27,000 students....while Clark County, Nevada transports a whopping 154,860 students, in 1241 buses and only racks up only 20 million miles per year.
Either I'm missing something...or there's numerous typos in this article....
NY has almost as many district buses as it does contractor buses. I think the contractors only have an edge of 5,000 buses, mostly due to NYC. There are around 50,000 school buses statewide here.
Even the contractors have to pay reasonably well in this area, thanks to unions. Most contractors start at the $15.00 mark, with some in the $18.00 area.
As far as the top fleet goes, those are only numbers reported by the districts on that list. If a district with a larger fleet doesn't report, it wont be on the list. There are certainly plenty of districts in this area with over 180 vehicles, they just dont report.  |
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Edited by - Rich on 10/21/2007 07:35:44 AM |
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JC Theriault
Top Member
Canada
1326 Posts |
Posted - 10/21/2007 : 9:56:40 PM
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Stock Transportation in Halifax NS is paying a whole $10.50 or so for new hires with run of 4 to 6 hours. I meant to find out what First Student's Annapolis Valley School Board drivers are getting paid. Transco here in Montreal quoted $9.25 when I looked at getting back behind the wheel - no wonder I went back to driving charter coaches.
JC |
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ICBuses
Active Member
United States
15 Posts |
Posted - 10/22/2007 : 06:58:15 AM
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| I was able to get ahold of the October 2007 issue of SBF. I'm noticing that a lot of the Georgia Districts are paying the most, on average. Why is this? The south is paying the most. Florida is inconsistant, Osprey Fla., they start at $15.64. Then Orlando starts at $11.57. What's up with that? |
"When you cut me I bleed School Bus Yellow with Black lines in it." GH |
Edited by - ICBuses on 10/22/2007 07:02:19 AM |
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bluebirdvision
Top Member
USA
1081 Posts |
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Nell65
Senior Member
USA
74 Posts |
Posted - 10/26/2007 : 3:52:37 PM
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| Our district is now up to 17.93 for new hires-you are a per diem driver for 1 year. The district my kids go to have been without a contract and are at $17.89 a hour-when they finally get a contract, expect quite a bit more from what I hear. Both of these are in the Hudson Valley of NY and both have fleets over 200+ buses-they are all district owned vehicles, no contractors. |
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disp29
Advanced Member
United States
202 Posts |
Posted - 10/30/2007 : 12:10:29 AM
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| Our highest route is paid $60 a day. That's one of the mini-bus routes that does 2 seperate routes, and takes about 2 hours in the AM and PM. My route, which is one K-12 in the AM & PM is about 40-45 minutes long, and I get $37 a day. Plus, if I do any work during the day at the lot, I get my hourly wage of $8.00. That's it! My route is one of the shortest. Our longest bus route, I think takes about 1 hour and 10 minutes, and I think that driver gets $48 a day for one K-12 run in the AM and PM for that time period. I used to have a Kindergarten run that paid me an extra $15 a day, but our District went to all day Kindergarten this School year, so I lost that |
kEvIn
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B. Busguy33
Top Member
USA
3444 Posts |
Posted - 11/07/2007 : 5:48:01 PM
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| $20.36 to $23.00 per hour in Eastern MA. |
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Topic |
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School Bus Pay, Who get's paid the most?
