KINGSTREE — Seventeen bus drivers with the Williamsburg County School District didn’t make afternoon pickups Friday as part of what district officials said may be the start of a district wide bus drivers strike.
One hundred eighty-five students were left at Kingstree Junior High School when bus drivers didn’t show up at the end of the day. One district official said the scene was “chaotic” and arrangements were being made to get those children home.
As of 4 p.m. Friday, there were still students at the school awaiting pickup.
Staff members from within the district said other schools within the county, Anderson Primary School and Cades Elementary, were being affected by the missed pickups. Officials with those schools couldn’t be reached for comment.
A district official said the missed pick-ups could be the start of a bus drivers strike in response to what bus drivers claim is an apparent cut in pay.
Recently, members of the district’s school board were presented with a report saying abuses of the bus driver overtime policy cost the district $500,000 last year. The board subsequently put the district’s transportation director, Willie McKnight, on administrative leave as a result of the report.
According to an official with the district, the bus drivers were considering a strike Nov. 2 in response the change in overtime policy.
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