Brenda Jackson has been a bus driver for about 16 years in two stints with the Greenville Public School District and this week, she is sitting out on strike along with 18 of her colleagues.
Recently, in lieu of reducing staff, bus drivers were limited to five hours per day, according to Everett Chinn, GPSD communications director. Chinn said there are 20 bus drivers on staff, but Jackson said there were 23 with four not joining the strike.
Bus drivers, like all other school employees, have seen massive changes in their work flow during the COVID-19 pandemic, but recent changes Jackson said were made by GPSD superintendent Debra Dace were enough to get her to walk out.
Those changes are effectively a governor on the ability of the bus drivers to earn more than a base rate of about 25 hours per week.
Jackson said the bus drivers in GPSD are categorized as 5-hour, 6-hour and 7-hour per day drivers. They’ve all been reduced to 5-hour-per-day drivers and any overtime is cut out.
During the pandemic this past calendar year, the school buses have actually been operating as delivery vehicles for meals and carrying disabled students to the school.
The cut in potential earnings isn’t the only worry Jackson has, she said she is worried there will be no pay in the summer.
“She (Dace) told us we’d only be paid for what we worked,” Jackson said. “If we don’t keep 20 hours, we won’t qualify for PERS and insurance.” (PERS is the state employee retirement system.)
“This is my sole source of income,” Jackson said. “This is my main job.”
Jackson said she earns about $1,200 per month and is a 5-hour-per-day employee.
“How we going to live like this?” Jackson asked.
While Jackson said pleas for conversation with the administration have recently fallen on deaf ears, the bus drivers do have a meeting set for Friday with Dace.
GPSD offered the drivers the option to be furloughed, which would allow them to apply for unemployment compensation. The district stated none of the bus drivers elected to be placed on a voluntary furlough and instead chose to work the 5-hour assignments.
Dace in a press release said she is unaware of any drivers not being paid for the time they worked but she will look into the matter.
“The district has a meeting scheduled for Friday, April 30, 2021, to discuss any issues or concerns with the Transportation Department,” Dace said. “The pandemic has brought about many changes and there may be some growing pains, but we ask everyone to work together and respect each other. The bus drivers are important to our success and we will get through this together and with transparency. We ask that everyone continue to focus on providing quality services for our children.”
