Bus Driver: ‘We Have a Crisis’

Marcellus shale jobs pay more than schools can

Morgantown Dominion Post
12 December 2010
By Jim Bissett

A Monongalia County School official says the recent boom in Marcellus shale drilling has been detrimental to the district’s ability to hire bus drivers.

The school district is in the midst of a driver-drought, of sorts, according to the Board of Education and Superintendent Frank Devono. They told local lawmakers earlier this month that the county has 94 drivers and four substitutes. The six mechanics who work at the bus garage are also on call as drivers.

Ask Transportation Director Irv Schuetzner why, and he’ll point to the want ads for his answer. People, he said, don’t dig driving a bus anymore.

Not when they can get behind the wheel of rigs on crews digging for natural gas from the Marcellus shale formation in Appalachia that’s causing energy companies to stomp the gas pedal on their way to West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
   

A parent’s perspective    


For parent Misty Chafin, it’s a matter of the good versus the not-so-good.

What’s good, says Chafin, who lives between Star City and Mylan Park, is that she can pretty much set her watch by the Monongalia County school bus that carries her son, Wesley, home after his classes at Skyview Elementary.

Wesley normally greets his mom around 4:25 p.m. each day.

But by then, the 4-year-old, who is autistic, has been on the bus for an hour. And for his mother, that’s not so good.

“I can get to Skyview in 15 or 20 minutes,” she said. Last year, she said, there were times when her son was on the bus for a long as an hour and 10 minutes, which also fell into to the not-so-good category.

“He isn’t potty trained,” she said, “so there have been times when he was soaked when he got home, because he was on the bus for so long.”

Save for that daily arrival time back home, Wesley’s situation is better this year, Chafin said.

His bus was assigned a new driver and aide this year, she said, and, so far, they’ve been attentive to her son’s considerations while also updating her each day on how he fared on the ride home.

“I really like them,” Chafin said.

She doesn’t always like her interaction with the Central Office or Transportation Department, she said.

“I would feel better if they treated this as an important issue,” Chafin said. “For starters, we need more bus drivers to split these kids up.”

More money in drilling    


The average school bus driver in the county, Schuetzner said, only makes around $17,000 for 10 months’ work.

That’s close to poverty level, he said, which means a second job is often necessary.

That includes the $225 out-of-pocket paperwork fee to apply for a Commercial Driver’s License (CDL), if they don’t already have one, Schuetzner said.

While the school district reimburses that money once a driver is hired, Schuetzner said the booming Marcellus shale industry in the region can hold up a lot more dollar signs, without all the background checks and other screenings.

A Penn State University report says that CDL-carrying drivers on Marcellus shale crews in Pennsylvania can make between $45,000-$100,000 a year, depending on their experience and how much overtime they work.

Schuetzner said that at his church he’s met new members recently arrived from Montana and New Mexico to make $20 an hour on Marcellus shale crews in the region.

With overtime, he said, it’s $30 an hour.
   

New laws needed    


Schuetzner said he wants to keep talking to lawmakers throughout the upcoming Legislative session, which convenes next month in Charleston.

That’s because pay grades for bus drivers are set by the state and not individual county districts, he said. “It’s not us. It’s the state code. The Legislature really needs to look at this.”

The sooner the better, said Brian Kiehl, an area minister who has been driving a school bus in the county for the past three years.

He expressed both his love of the job and his concerns for its future during last week’s Board of Education meeting.

“I’m a school bus driver, and I love what I do,” he said. “But I come to you this evening to tell you that we have a crisis.”