Wake schools offer $1,200 bonus for new drivers. But vacancies remain high.
The Wake County school system will again offer $1,200 bonuses to new school bus drivers amid a rising driver shortage that’s impacting service for thousands of students.
The Wake school board approved Tuesday a plan to offer the sign-on bonus for new drivers for the 2022-23 school year. Wake began offering the $1,200 recruitment bonus last year but has continued to see hundreds of positions remain unfilled.
Under the bonus plan, new drivers will get $400 after their first three months on the job. If they’re still driving eight months later, they’ll get the remaining $800 bonus.
Wake started the school year with 266 vacancies, for a 30% driver vacancy rate. The shortage caused Wake to run 52 fewer bus routes than last school year. The remaining buses are more crowded and have longer ride times for students.
Some routes go unfilled, forcing families to provide their own transportation.
“It’s been frustrating to hear parents’ frustrations with the opening of school,” said board member Christine Kushner.
Wake has seen a drop in the number of drivers each year despite raising pay and offering bonuses. There’s a nationwide shortage of school bus drivers as people can make more money with their commercial driving license operating a truck or working for a public transportation service.
The state pays the base salaries for bus drivers, with school districts supplementing the pay. The starting salary for a Wake bus driver is $17.20 an hour.
School transportation officials said they’ll likely need to continue the driver bonus program in future years.
Staffing and tutoring dollars
Also on Tuesday:
▪ The board approved using $6 million from the district’s reserves to pay for school staffing support, including covering teacher vacancies of more than 10 days and maintaining small class sizes.
▪ The board approved using $870,000 from the district’s reserves to fund the new WakeTogether tutoring program. The money will be used to provide training to school employees and volunteer tutors.
This story was originally published September 7, 2022 at 11:56 AM with the headline "Wake schools offer $1,200 bonus for new drivers. But vacancies remain high.."
