Starting school bus driver pay
Dayton – $13.05
West Carrollton – $15.43
Kettering – $16.40
Huber Heights – $17.74
Mad River – $17.82
Source: Labor contracts, district officials
Dayton Public Schools officials continue to negotiate with their bus drivers union, with a possible strike date now looming just six days away.
Dayton’s school board met in executive session Tuesday night to get an update on the process, after a seven-hour bargaining session Monday. Another negotiating session is scheduled for Wednesday.
“The Dayton Board of Education is committed to continuing to work to provide a fair and equitable resolution to this situation with our bus drivers,” school board President Robert Walker said. “We are very optimistic as we move forward. It’s important for us to ensure that the children of the Dayton community are in school. And we’re committed to that.”
Almost 12,000 students ride Dayton school buses every day to 60 public, charter, Catholic and private schools. Those buses are driven by 160 members of Ohio Association of Public School Employees Local 627.
OAPSE field representative Jim Tackett said Tuesday night that a driver strike is still set for April 21, but “with the hopes that we resolve it before then.” Last week he said bus drivers were frustrated with pay and training issues.
New Dayton school bus drivers start at $13.05 per hour, compared with $15.43 in West Carrollton schools, $16.40 in Kettering, $17.74 in Huber Heights and $17.82 in Mad River schools. Senior driver Glenn Miller said the Dayton school board offered a 2 percent raise in its latest contract offer, but it would take a 25 percent raise for Dayton drivers to match Kettering, which is at the midpoint of those five districts.
“It comes down to respect,” Tackett said last week, pointing to significant raises recently given to some DPS administrators. “We’re one of the lowest paid around and we’re losing drivers left and right. We want to retain these drivers, and if you ask anyone here, they feel they’re not respected.”
The timing of the strike would be especially difficult for Dayton Public Schools, since students are scheduled to take state tests next week. The April 21 strike date is also the first day for DPS third-graders to take the state reading test, which determines whether they advance to fourth grade.
Asked whether the school district had a contingency plan in case a strike did happen, Walker only repeated his statement that the district was optimistic and committed to resolving the labor dispute.
Martha Ferguson’s three grandchildren ride a school bus 4.3 miles from Kilmer Avenue to Dayton STEAM Academy each day. Ferguson said she’s lucky that she could still get the kids to school in the event of a strike, but she hopes the drivers get a better deal.
“I feel those drivers ought to get battle pay for being on the buses with those children,” Ferguson said. “They’re disruptive and unruly … That’s not a job that I could do, nor would I want to.”
Casey Stafford’s first- and third-grade children ride buses from Nassau Street — one to Eastmont school and one to Wright Brothers.
“I just really don’t want them to take the buses away, because otherwise I can’t get my kids to school. If they go on strike, it’s going to mess me up,” Stafford said. “They wouldn’t let me put my kids at Ruskin, where we could have just walked to the school.”
Dayton Public Schools held a job fair Monday for people who want to be bus drivers, but the district emphasized that’s part of the regular hiring process, not an attempt to fill vacancies in case of a bus driver strike.
Transportation Department supervisor Jameka Bennett said it would take six to eight weeks for any of Monday’s new applicants to be behind the wheel of a Dayton school bus, meaning they’re likely out of the mix for this school year.
Finding substitute drivers likely would be a challenge, as many local school districts complained of driver shortages last month. Kettering City Schools put large signs in front of some schools this winter, urging people to apply for bus driving roles.
DPS spokeswoman Jill Moberley, who has been with the district 30 years, said she can’t remember a bus driver strike in her tenure.
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