Bus driver Don Schmidt — along with many other bus drivers and monitors — showed up at the Campbell County School Board meeting Monday night to protest their salary for the upcoming school year.
“I’m here tonight with our bus drivers and monitors to publicly protest the amended salary schedule for the upcoming school year,” Schmidt said.
At the meeting, Schmidt said pay scales for teachers, principals, and administrators were only within 1% of other districts, while bus drivers and monitors were significantly lower over the last three years.
Bus monitors sit on busses with kids to make sure they are following the rules.
“On May 24, over 90 transportation employees signed a petition and presented it to the new superintendent Shelley Wilson addressing our concerns, who shared it with a board,” Schmidt said. “We felt that their response was essentially dismissive.”
Schmidt gave examples of Kenton County drivers making 10.4% more on the hour and monitors making 11.7% more hourly. Boone County drivers make 14.51% more, and Covington drivers 14.91% more. He also noted that Kenton County drivers received a 13.76% pay increase since 2019, while Campbell County only got 3.9%.
He said these jobs had faced shortages in staffing, and state and national wages don’t reflect the position’s responsibilities.
“Kentucky has some of the highest standards nationally when it comes to transporting students,” Schmidt said at the meeting.
Kentucky bus drivers must maintain a commercial driver’s license with special endorsements for school bus passengers. Transportation employees must complete eight hours of field training, first aid, and emergency medication training annually. They also must also get CPR certified every two years.
Drivers are subject to random drug and alcohol testing throughout the year.
Bus drivers must also complete a Department of Transportation medical exam annually to ensure they are fit for the job.
“We comfort and care for students with nosebleeds and even more severe medical conditions,” Schmidt said. “We are drivers, caretakers, and nurses, all without complaints because we truly love and take pride in our jobs.”
Campbell County resident Anna Zinkhon also spoke at the meeting to support the bus drivers and monitors.
“I think it’s very poor management on the part of the school board and the whole school system not to see this as a serious issue and not let it get to this degree,” Zinkhon said. “We’re not a poor County. We have a great football, sports, everything else the money is spent on; why aren’t these drivers being looked into and thought about in the planning stages of your budget and all your other spending?”
No one on the board spoke on this issue during the meeting.
Schmidt said that transportation employees have gone through all of the requirements to prepare for this upcoming school year, from receiving their physicals to annual training.
“Unless we receive equal compensation with other districts, as outlined in the petition, a significant number of drivers and monitors will not be on hand on August 10 to pick up or deliver students until our pay is addressed to our satisfaction,” Schmidt said at the meeting.
