By Tracy Ouellette
Editor
The East Troy Community School District is in need of bus drivers and according to Business Administrator Kathy Zwirgzdas that need is immediate.
“I’ve always felt we were on the edge with this,” she said at Monday night’s monthly board meeting. “But now I’m really worried.”
According to Zwirgzdas, two more drivers have announced their retirement at the end of the year, putting the district down eight drivers since July of 2012. Zwirgzdas said she’s placed ads in the local newspapers, but hasn’t received many applicants.
East Troy is unique to many districts in that it operates its own transportation department instead of outsourcing the routes to a bus company. Being a smaller district, it’s not possible for East Troy to offer its drivers full-time position that are often available with those other bus companies, so it’s become an issue for the district to keep its fleet staffed a comfortable levels.
Zwirgzdas offered the board a few ideas as to how to attract more drivers. The first being a $100 hiring/finding bonus, which she wanted and got approval for to place in the next ad for the position. She also requested the board approve a $100 longevity bonus for drivers who were still in the district’s employ at the end of the school year. The board also approved that.
She also requested permission to place a “hiring bus drivers” sign on one of the district’s buses and park it out on Highway 20 to let people know of the need. The board also approved that motion after a little discussion about possibly moving the bus around to other location to reach more people.
Zwirgzdas talked about other solutions to the problem if the district was unable to hire enough drivers, but said Tuesday these were to be considered secondary options, “They’re more down the line.”
Some of those included opening up the position to other district employees, allowing them to become full-time and giving them access to health insurance benefits as an incentive.
She also mentioned they could start outsourcing some of the routes to other area companies, including S&J Bus Service Inc. in Waterford, which lost its contract with the Waterford Graded School District. Bids would have to be taken for that if it came to be, according to Zwirgzdas.
Board member Martha Bresler asked about the possibility of using a temporary employment agency and Zwirgzdas said she would look into it.
Bresler commented on how important the roll was, recounting a conversation she once had with a bus driver where she was told, “Your day depends on your bus driver. It is the very first contact that child has with school.”
Referendum questions
Tim Griffin spoke during the public comments section of Monday night’s meeting, telling the board he felt it was “absolutely critical” the district get another capitol improvement’s referendum passed this coming April.
He said the district was “bleeding” students to other districts and the only way to stop that was to make sure the community had the most to offer that it could in the way of education.
Voters rejected last April a $17.2 million referendum to pay for the construction of a $9.5 million community auditorium, $340,000 in safety and security upgrades throughout the district, $2.1 million for a STEM addition at ETHS, $1.4 million for renovation of the traditional technical education rooms at ETHS, as well as other district improvements.
Griffin said if the board took off the $10 million auditorium, he felt the community would pass the referendum.
Board Member Dawn Buchholz said the referendum working committee was diligently studying different options for a new referendum, but didn’t have anything specific to report to the board on exactly what those options looked like.
The working committee will meet again on either Nov. 20 or 21 to discuss the matter further.
