Citing a neighborhood school district’s fall 2021 determination to cancel courses for a day because of a scarcity of bus drivers, a Tulsa lawmaker has filed a proposal for the upcoming legislative session to offer a pay elevate for school support staff.
A normal appropriation invoice submitted Thursday by state Rep. John Waldron, D-Tulsa, would offer a 20% pay improve for non-certified school district staff who presently earn lower than $80,000 per 12 months, resembling bus drivers, custodians, youngster diet staff, instructor’s assistants and paraprofessionals.
For a model new bus driver at Broken Arrow Public Schools, the laws would imply rising the beginning pay from $13.66 per hour to $16.39 per hour. For their counterpart at Union, it will imply beginning at $15.02 per hour as an alternative of $12.52.
“The shortage is acute,” Waldron mentioned, noting that inflation was an element within the determination to hunt a double-digit elevate. “We had colleges shut down throughout a COVID-19 wave final 12 months as a result of they couldn’t get bus drivers. We have individuals in Tulsa making $10.50 per hour as support staff in our colleges and that’s not going to maintain individuals there.
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“They’re essential workers and they are vital to keeping our schools open.”
Even with a number of providing sign-on bonuses, greater than a dozen districts across the Tulsa space had a number of job postings for support positions as of Friday morning, together with Tulsa, Union, Jenks, Broken Arrow, Bixby, Claremore, Coweta and Owasso.
For instance, officers at Union Public Schools mentioned in December that even with a $2,000 sign-on bonus, they’re unable to develop its standard extended day program because of eight vacant positions that they haven’t been in a position to fill.
Along with briefly canceling routes in rolling blackout type throughout each the autumn 2021 and fall 2022 semesters, Bixby Public Schools needed to cancel classes for a day in November 2021 because of a scarcity of bus drivers.
Other space districts, together with Union and Jenks, needed to cancel or consolidate routes for particular campuses through the 2021-2022 school 12 months because of a scarcity of obtainable bus drivers.
“There are tremendous needs,” Waldron mentioned. “We have people working in our schools who are living below the poverty line.”
Two measures had been filed through the 2022 legislative session to offer a pay elevate for school districts’ non-certified staff, with one calling for a 3% elevate and the opposite calling for a 6% elevate. However, neither made it previous the committee stage.
As of the shut of enterprise Friday, Waldron’s proposal has not been assigned a invoice quantity. The 2023 legislative session begins on Feb. 6.
Investigative reporting and native colleges protection by Andrea Eger and Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton.
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