JCPS bus driver on sickout: 'This job is not worth anyone's life'

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the number of routes that were canceled Monday. There were 99 routes canceled.

More than 100 Jefferson County Public Schools bus drivers called in Monday, forcing the district to cancel 99 routes in the morning and leaving students stranded at schools in the evening.

The biggest reason for the sickout, one driver told The Courier Journal, is that the job has become far more dangerous.

"There have been numerous situations where drivers are being threatened," said the driver, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution. "The kids are out of control and they get put right back on the bus."

She said she's been a bus driver for more than 20 years and behavior and discipline have long been issues, but things have escalated since the COVID-19 pandemic. She said the district has not increased its support.

"The kids do horrible things to drivers — they spit on them, they cuss at them and the other kids who are good are scared to ride the bus," the driver said.

The comments echo what John Stovall, head of the bus drivers' union, told The Courier Journal last week about the bus drivers' reasons for calling in sick.

"They're tired of ... working 10 hours a day, then you get cussed out by kids," said Stovall, president head of Teamsters 783. "It's just the accumulation of the long hours and the screwed-up Alpha routing system."

AlphaRoute, a Boston-based firm, designed the new busing system put in place at the beginning of this school year. It used artificial intelligence to cut the number of bus stops by nearly half, which allowed the district — for the first time — to employ more drivers than routes. But issues arose on the first day of school, causing students to get home hours late and the district to cancel classes for days.

JCPS has approximately 570 drivers, spokeswoman Carolyn Callahan has said. The Courier Journal previously reported the district has about 600 bus routes under the system implemented this year.

Stovall said the union is working with the district to enforce the student discipline code of conduct and that a new code of conduct was sent out in July but "for whatever reason, the transportation department or the district itself, chose not to share it with the bus drivers."

The new code of conduct shows students can, and will, be suspended from riding buses for inappropriate behavior, Stovall said.

The anonymous driver said one of her peers saw an altercation start between students and requested security and police be at the next stop before the bus arrived.

"When they arrived, there were angry parents — one had a baseball bat ... and there wasn’t any security around," she said.

While that situation didn't make headlines, other altercations have. In September, a JCPS student released pepper spray on a bus headed to a middle school after two unauthorized adults boarded the bus at a stop.

Later that same day, two people were shot in Russell after an altercation that started on a JCPS bus, according to Louisville Metro Police. One of those victims was an Eastern High student.

Nearly 15,000 bus referrals were given to students during the last school year, according to the district, but the driver said schools aren't disciplining students effectively.

More: JCPS cancels dozens of bus routes after 143 drivers call out for Monday. What we know.

"The schools receive the referrals but the disciplinary actions are very mild," she said. "Their main objective, I think, is to keep (the students) in school and they start out with conferences or calling the parent or maybe suspending them off the bus. However, I have been told that other drivers have taken these kids home to keep them off the regular bus but it's not teaching them anything. They need harsher consequences."

How much money are JCPS drivers being paid?

Each driver who called in gave up an attendance bonus, which provides an extra $6 per hour for perfect attendance over a two-week pay period. Given the district is short about 100 drivers and there are now staggering start times, that equates to a lofty bonus for drivers who are now working significantly longer shifts.

The driver who spoke with The Courier Journal said her shift increased from 7 hours and 40 minutes last year to 10 hours and 15 minutes this year, but some days are longer when other routes need to be covered.

Still, she chose to give up the additional pay in hopes that district leaders will recognize the conditions drivers want to see changed.

She wants the district to understand, "this job is not worth anyone’s life," she said.

"I would like to see more action taken on these referrals and I would like to see drivers have better protection, monitors if possible," she said. Additionally, she said the district's policy to take away the attendance bonus for those who miss a shift, regardless of the situation or frequency, is unfair.

"They use this bonus as an incentive to get us to come to work but taking it away for two weeks just because you have a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon is really unfair because we don’t have time in between our bus runs now (like last year)," she said.

Major changes to how many and which students are bused are in the works, however. The start of this school year - when classes were cancelled for several days - proved JCPS can no longer reliably bus nearly 68,000 students across the county anymore.

Board members are considering four different options to drop an estimated 60 to140 routes.

More: Why are JCPS bus drivers angry? Here's what their union president says

Contact reporter Krista Johnson at kjohnson3@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Hundreds of JCPS drivers sacrifice significant pay bonus over student behavior