At the Nov. 11 board meeting, trustees approved raising the starting pay rate for drivers from $19.19 an hour to $23 an hour in a 6-0 vote.
“Almost every other district in the area pays more than us,” CFISD Chief Operations Officer Matt Morgan said at the Nov. 7 board work session.
By the numbers
In addition to neighboring school districts, CFISD is competing with entities such as Amazon Freight Partners, where pay starts at $22-$23 an hour locally, according to the district.
Morgan said despite reducing bus service for the 2024-25 school year, the department has about 56 bus driver vacancies and 50-75 driver absences daily. To fill the gap, directors, supervisors and vehicle technicians are taking time out of their days to cover routes, he said.
In addition to the nearly 20% bump in the starting pay rate, all current drivers, attendants, dispatchers and trainers will see a $3.81 equity adjustment to their pay rates, officials said Nov. 7.
In June, the board unanimously approved updating transportation service eligibility criteria to save about $4.8 million in the fiscal year 2024-25 budget. Community Impact previously reported this led to a 20% decrease in student ridership year over year.
This mid-year pay increase is expected to cost $5.4 million—prorated to $3.5 million since it’s going into effect Dec. 1.
Also of note
Superintendent Doug Killian said Nov. 7 if this effort sufficiently boosts the district’s bus driver numbers, officials could re-evaluate bus routes—but reinstating bus service is also dependent on revenue.
“We’re going to try this out to see if we can attract some more drivers and fill those empty positions that we have. ... I know there’s been a lot of talk in the community about restoring some routes. That might be possible if we can actually get bus drivers to fill the vacant positions right now,” Killian said.
