Bus drivers in Williamsburg County leave students stranded
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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Reader Reactions
Lets see, these drivers cheated and somehow got P0,000 in ‘over-time’, that turned out to be not due them.
And they decided to strike because someone blew the wistle and they can’t get away with the scam anymore.
Sue then for the money they were not due. Hold someone responsible for letting this go on as long as it did.
Fire the whole bunch. It couldn’t take much intelligence to drive a bus, scam payroll and then think they should strike because they will be getting paid less (since they can’t cheat anymore).
I do not know why these bus drivers are going on like this. they knew from the beginning they were not suppose to be making that much money. IF they were in that case everybody needs to stop there jobs and become bus drivers. they would have done better to say they went on strike because they can;t steal time anymore.
They should be arrested for child neglect!!!
Angelsquawk: Your lack of knowledge is exceeded only by your enthusiasm . I beg to differ. All of the children in all of the counties are guaranteed the same level of education .Or at least by law. the public schools are a state entity, not local. So you see, the two counties do have something in common .
May be because Horry and Williamsburg counties cannot be compared in any way.
Everyone knows Williamsburg County is always last.
Apparently SCNOW does not want us to know how much the superintendent of Horry County schools makes. I have been cut off 2 times trying to post it. It is: $240,000 annually [including allowances],plus a one million dollar provided life ins. policy. On the house of course. I can see how a bus driver might revolt.
I don’t know the whole story and I wont know from this article or the comments that are made. What I do know is that Children were neglected and used as pawns. If the Bus Drivers have a legitimate complaint then there are steps to take that would not affect the Children in such a drastic way. Have the Bus Drivers attended a School Board meeting to state their concerns. Why didn’t they hold a lunch time rally at the District office to get their point across. Stranding and Using Children as pawn will never get my sympathy.
It doesn’t matter WHY they did it.
There is no excuse for putting all those sutdents in danger….and having all those kids stranded at school was putting them in danger.
Fire them. The don’t have good enough judgment to drive students in school buses.Period.
What the drivers did was BS, pure and simple. Their act of creating mayhem was inexcusable. And I agree with some of the other comments inasmuch as this. If the drivers have grievances, then take it to the source of the dispute. But don’t create more hardship on parents, guardians, etc. who already have enough problems on on their plate. Bottom line is this. If someone is not happy with the pay or conditions, or whatever, then quit (properly w/notice)and find something else better. I’m sorry but I have no sympathy for anyone who decided to resort to this form of action, when there are alternatives.
I know msny of the bus drivers that did not pick up the children. (Trueblue I have three children at two different schools and yes I had to pick them up). However, I do understand how the drivers feel. How would you feel if one day you were making 500.00 and all of a sudden it was cut in half. I know that the district has been trying to find extra bus drivers for years to fill routes that had to be combined, I sent several people looking for bus drivers jobs. I can tell you that the pay was never great but at least it was fair. The bus drivers are noy seeking a pay increasse they only want their pay restored to want it was. The district decided not to address their concerns so they made a statement. At least now their is a meeting set for Monday. (Trueblue) you need to get the people you know to sign up to drive school bus because even after this we still need many drivers in our county. Keep in mind that when the drivers agreed to driver they were making a certain amount of money, to have that cut in half is asking for trouble. In this economy who can pay their creditors if money is suddenly taken away By the way many drivers wanted to quite weeks ago but they were asked to wait on this to be worked out. THEY ARE STILL WAITING! I PROMISE YOU THAT NO ONE WILL GET UP AT 4-5 IN THE MORNING FOR 125.OO PER WEEK AND RETURN HOME AFTER SIX. WHY DON’T YOU TRY IT (TRUEBLUE).
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