Cobb schools eye pay bump for bus drivers

Chart Riggall, Marietta Daily Journal, Ga.
·2 min read

Aug. 18—Cobb school board members will be asked Thursday to sign off on a $5.25 per hour pay raise for district bus drivers, costing the district an estimated $7.6 million.

The proposal is the district's latest bid to attract and retain support staff like drivers, substitutes, and food service workers. Cobb has struggled to fill those posts since the start of the pandemic.

Bus drivers in particular, according to Superintendent Chris Ragsdale, have been a particular challenge in a district where over 70% of students ride the bus to school.

"Although we are covering all our bus routes, we are always looking for new team members. We are in need of 200 bus drivers, a shortage impacting school districts across the country," said district spokesperson Nan Kiel.

Drivers who have been employed since September 2021 have already seen bonuses totaling $4,400 in a bid to keep them on board.

Last year, drivers and monitors received a $1,200 "retention bonus" on their December paychecks. The district signed off on another round of $1,200 bonuses in February, which was seen on May paychecks.

Meanwhile the state, which found itself with a multi-billion-dollar budget surplus last year, gave drivers, cafeteria, and custodial workers an additional $2,000. Cobb schools later used federal stimulus cash to extend that bonus to all of the district's permanent employees.

Last October, Ragsdale said the first round of bonuses hadn't panned out as planned.

"The harsh reality is, we're having to have the conversations in executive cabinet about, there is a critical point ... we are literally having the conversation at least once a week about, OK, we got to talk about how we're going to be able to do business," he said.

Drivers were already covered under the sweeping raises included in the district's fiscal year 2023 budget upping employee pay by 8.5% to 13.1%, according to Kiel. The proposed raises would be on top of those already implemented.

Bus driver pay would now land between $25 and $33.32 per hour depending on tenure, per the agenda item. The district describes the proposal as "budget neutral," paid for by higher than expected property tax revenues.

The school board will convene for a work session at 3 p.m. Thursday at Cobb schools' central offices in Marietta, followed by its voting meeting at 7 p.m.