TULSA, Okla. — The worker shortage continues in Green Country, and local schools are feeling the stress.
One of the area's largest districts, Union Public Schools is searching for bus drivers as the first day of school approaches.
A full bus staff for Union is between 70 to 75 drivers. But as of Tuesday, the district is down 17 drivers. School staff said the situation is now dire. They said they'll be able to make it for the first day but the district will have to hire drivers soon.
“We can kind of deal with it for a short while but we’re really in a pretty dangerous spot where we really can’t afford to lose any. And it’s gonna be really tough to make routes on time,” said Director of Communications, Chris Payne.
Payne said they can pull people from other departments but that causes shortages across the board. So to combat the shortage and entice applicants, the board voted to raise driver pay.
“Two dollars an hour, which is really really pretty significant. Which means starting pay for bus drivers is gonna be 15 dollars an hour and that’s without having had any experience,” said Payne.
And on top of the two-dollar raise, the district can help with training to get a CDL and a two thousand dollar sign-on bonus for those who stay with the district for a year. Payne said the job offers benefits and the same schedule as the rest
of the school.
“The good thing on this is it’s fairly flexible, you know you’ve got an opening. You’ll work in the morning, you’ll work in the afternoon but you’ll have you know a gap in the middle so there’s some flexibility to do other things during your day. I mean there’s some great things. It would be a great job for seniors or college students,” said Payne.
To be considered for the bus driver position, applicants must have a current commercial driver's license. Payne said once hired, drivers will get the sign-on bonus. If you're interested in driving for Union Public Schools, the link to apply is here.
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