For many reasons, most of them beyond our control, this school year promises to be a stressful one. The COVID-19 pandemic casts a frightful shadow of leaning. That’s true from top to bottom – students, parents, teachers, staff and administration.
Good faith efforts are being made to minimize the impact of the virus on both education and health, but even the best plans cannot account for all of the possible disruptions.
Yet for students and parents in the Columbus Municipal School Districts who rely on the district’s transportation system, a new stress emerged Monday, one that better communication would likely have resolved.
Monday afternoon, the majority of the district’s bus drivers walked off the job, leaving school administrators and parents scrambling to make sure children reached home safely Monday afternoon.
Drivers are expected to be at their designated schools for pick-up by 1:45 p.m. Yet on Monday, only 10 of 46 drivers had left for their routes as of 2 p.m.
Parents were notified of the walk-out by text and were forced to make immediate plans for returning their children home Monday.
CMSD superintendent Cheri Labat said arrangements for Tuesday pick-ups had been made.
The dispute emerged when drivers were notified they would not be paid for a five-day, six-hour-per day work week. Because the schools are not open on Wednesday, no bus routes are needed that day. Likewise, the work day was shortened to 4 ½ hours from 6 hours, again due to changes in the schools’ schedules, the district says. With 40 percent of the students attending virtual classes only and the other 60 percent attending classes on campus just two days a week, fewer students are riding the buses. As a result, routes are shorter, which accounts for the shorter work day, the district says.
Bus drivers who thought they would be paid for 30 hours a week are now being paid for 18 hours. That’s a 40 percent cut in pay; we can understand why drivers object.
The district maintains that, by law, it cannot pay hourly employees for hours not worked. That’s a valid point.
Where we fault the district is that it apparently failed to communicate that clearly to the bus drivers before the school year started. It wasn’t until a Monday morning meeting that bus drivers were told of the reduced hours, just days before the first monthly pay period is to end.
How the bus drivers would be paid should have been communicated before the first route was driven on Aug. 6.
While we understand the drivers’ frustration, we do not agree with their tactics. The decision to abruptly walk off the job put children and parents in a stressful situation.
It would have been far better to continue their routes Monday and Tuesday and use Wednesday, when no routes are being driven, to make their cases to the district. The bus drivers would have lost no leverage in doing that and no students or parents would have been left scrambling to make their own arrangements.
Because state law requires bus drivers to hold a Class B Commercial Driver’s License, there is no quick fix. Drivers are in short supply. If the district’s transportation system is to work, the best available option is to talk with drivers to see if the situation can be amicably resolved.
It seems to us a breakdown in communication created the problem. Better communication may solve it.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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