The Bus Driver
15 Years Experience
South, ..
Female, 37
I have been a bus driver since late 2006. I know the inside story, the scoop, the down low dirt of what it takes to be a bus driver, how to handle kids and adults, and how to survive on the "streets" so to speak. I used to have a blog, feel free to browse it or ask me a question here.
Summer is usually the time for staff turnover. Thats when people retire, find other jobs, transfer from one school to another (middle school to elementary etc) and in the rare case, the district will terminate those who didn't perform to their standards or who left without intentions to return.
Sometimes in other rare instances, a school board might be considering switching contractors. In the case of bus drivers, this happens more often in larger districts where companies like Durham and First Student bid on a contract and most of the time there is informal hiring and firing of employees as they transfer the contract services.
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Yes. They should complain to the district and the bus barn. The driver is not at fault because of the way the district is forcing the overcrowding issues and refusal to accommodate time schedules at the schools. It also doesn't help when parents yell at the driver too. Take it higher and the driver might actually get some relief on the overcrowding.
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It depends on the district. Most districts have rules about when and how early to pick up students.
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I use a variety of positive reinforcement tactics. For most kids, a routine is best so assigning them a seat on the bus and a seatmate they're friends with alleviates 90 percent of behavior issues. The other 10 percent, I use positive rewards for good behavior and largely ignore the bad behavior. Sometimes with a difficult child, I assign them a "job" like making sure everyone is awake. Now occasionally even this method doesn't work and I do have to resort to writing a child up and turning them into the school but that is a last resort.
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It depends on the district and the company. Sometimes, districts have to consider how they would look to the general public if their personnel did certain things so they put policies in place to ensure that their people follow them. That's not to say that people don't accidentally mess up now and again.
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Equivalent is experience. Most bus driving jobs and jobs today in general require a minimum of a highschool diploma. This should be industry standard across the board.
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Highschool diploma and cdl certification is standard. Anything else is bonus and more than welcome.
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