{"id":16245,"date":"2013-01-23T15:16:55","date_gmt":"2013-01-23T20:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/?p=16245"},"modified":"2013-01-25T11:48:43","modified_gmt":"2013-01-25T16:48:43","slug":"being-a-school-bus-driver-can-be-minimum-wage-work-with-big-responsibilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/2013\/01\/23\/being-a-school-bus-driver-can-be-minimum-wage-work-with-big-responsibilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Being A School Bus Driver Can Be Minimum Wage Work With Big Responsibilities"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Sarah Gonzalez \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Miami-Dade school bus driver Sharayne Milton says she tries to work overtime weekends every day to earn more money than the $12.16 she makes an hour. Her day can start at 4 a.m. and end at 10:30 p.m.<\/p><\/div>\n

Driver Gwendolyn Tillman doesn’t usually get between students fighting on the school bus.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually if there are some other guys on the bus and the guys have respect for the bus drivers, the other young men on the bus will pull them apart,\u201d Tillman said.<\/p>\n

If nobody pulls the kids apart, bus drivers are instructed to call the district dispatcher — and not the police.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur drivers do not take actions against individual students,\u201d said Jerry Klein. He\u2019s in charge of school transportation in Miami-Dade County.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a process for them to fill out a report and then the schools deal with it like any other misbehavior in the schools.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Calling a dispatcher is the protocol for any emergency on a school bus. And that has sparked some controversy in Florida.<\/p>\n

In Hillsborough County, a school bus driver called the district when 7-year-old Isabella Herrera was having trouble breathing on the school bus.<\/a>\u00a0The little girl had a neuromuscular disorder, and she later died<\/p>\n

The Hillsborough County school district could not comment because they\u2019re in the middle of a lawsuit over the circumstances surrounding Herrera\u2019s death.\u00a0But in Miami-Dade, Klein says calling a dispatcher is just as good as calling the police.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have access as quickly as they do to be able to call [the police], you don\u2019t really save time,\u201d Klein said. \u201cBut beyond that, the dispatcher can reach a wide variety of people and try to get the closest people there to be able to assist.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says a dispatcher can call a School Resource Officer<\/a> and a child\u2019s parents, in addition to an ambulance and anyone else that may be needed.<\/p>\n

But some parents argue school bus drivers should call 911 before they call anyone else.<\/p>\n

At a time when the state is looking to ramp-up security in schools<\/a>, some point out school buses have not been a part of the conversation.<\/p>\n

In Miami-Dade, Florida\u2019s largest school district, none of the school buses have security cameras.<\/p>\n

Little Pay, Big Responsibilities<\/h4>\n

In Florida, the average salary for a full-time school bus driver is $17,380 a year. It\u2019s about the same in Florida\u2019s largest school districts, Miami-Dade, Broward, and Hillsborough.<\/p>\n

In Orange County, the average salary is $15,504.<\/p>\n

In Duval, the average salary is $20,384.<\/p>\n

Ronda Martin is with the Office of Labor Relations for Miami-Dade public schools.<\/p>\n

She says bus drivers are paid for the 191 days when students are in school. But she says many of the drivers work overtime and weekends to earn extra money — like Sharayne Milton.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to do overtime at least every day, 5 days a week,\u201d Milton said. \u201cAnd if they want me to work on the weekend, I will.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sarah Gonzalez \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

When students are in class, school bus drivers wait for about four unpaid hours at a school bus driver's lounge. The drivers say it's not enough time to get a second job during the down time.<\/p><\/div>\n

Milton takes students on field trips and waits to transport students who have after school sports and activities. Her day starts at 4 a.m. and can end at 10:30 p.m, with about four unpaid hours in between while students are in class.<\/p>\n

It can be a minimum wage job that involves a lot of responsibilities.<\/p>\n

School bus drivers follow a training curriculum from the Florida Department of Education which covers passenger management, traffic awareness, how to handle special needs students, and how to safely load and unload students.<\/p>\n

Their role in keeping students safe was highlighted recently when 13-year-old Lourdes Guzman-DeJesus was shot and killed on a Miami-Dade County charter school bus in November.<\/a><\/p>\n

A 15-year-old boy, also riding the school bus, brought a loaded gun with him and it accidentally went off.<\/p>\n

Parents like Robin Godby of Pembroke Pines, Fla. say school bus drivers should just be in charge of driving students safely. She says there should be an aide on the bus watching students to make sure they\u2019re behaving and are safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think they get the support,\u201d Godby said. \u201cThey have to deal with kids who have disciplinary problems and they have to drive a vehicle.\u201d<\/p>\n

She knows what it\u2019s like to try to discipline her two daughters from the driver\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt drives me nuts,\u201d Godby said. \u201cEspecially if they start fighting or bickering. It\u2019s distracting.\u201d<\/p>\n

School bus drivers in Florida\u2019s larger districts can have close to 90 students behind them.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour Eyes Have to Constantly Be Rotating\u201d<\/h4>\n

Sonia Hanson has been a school bus driver in Miami-Dade for the past 28 years. She says keeping kids in line is not an easy task.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour eyes have to constantly be rotating,\u201d Hanson said. \u201cYou can\u2019t just look straight ahead. You have to be able to drive, look around you, look in the rear view mirror to make sure the students are staying in their seat.\u201d<\/p>\n

And some students challenge the bus driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey want to bully you, they want to be in control of the bus, having their head or their hands out the window,\u201d Hanson said. \u201cIt\u2019s stressful. Especially when you\u2019re dealing with the traffic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sarah Gonzalez \/ StateImpact Florida<\/p>

Middle school student Sarah Godby, 12, says she doesn't like riding on the school bus because students bully other students and throw rocks out of the window. <\/p><\/div>\n

The Florida Department of Education used to publish incidents of misbehavior on school buses. But it no longer does.<\/p>\n

The most recent data, from 2007, shows there were more than 2,000 discipline incidents on school buses.<\/p>\n

But middle school student Sarah Godby, 12, says it\u2019s the small things students do on a school bus that can really set the tone for the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey throw rocks,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd they throw pens outside the window.<\/p>\n

“It’s good from where I sit but in the back it’s not the best,” she said.<\/p>\n

In Miami-Dade, more than 75 percent of the district\u2019s 1,305 school bus drivers are women, which can sometimes add to the challenge of disciplining students.<\/p>\n

Students who repeatedly misbehave can be suspended or banned from riding a school bus. But school bus drivers say that\u2019s a last resort because it could mean a student isn’t able to get to school.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re parents as well,\u201d said school bus driver Hanson. \u201cAnd we have students and nieces and nephews who ride on the school bus and they\u2019re not always the best either.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Driver Gwendolyn Tillman doesn’t usually get between students fighting on the school bus. \u201cUsually if there are some other guys on the bus and the guys have respect for the bus drivers, the other young men on the bus will pull them apart,\u201d Tillman said. If nobody pulls the kids apart, bus drivers are instructed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[1036,1085,1179,1022],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16245"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16328,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16245\/revisions\/16328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/florida\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}