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— News via Quincy Quarry News – News, Opinion and Commentary
School buses all in a row
A file photo
The Southshore Broadsheet recently published a story that should worry local parents who rely on Quincy Public Schools District school buses.
Quincy public school bus drivers have worked without a contract since their old one expired in July of last year.
Granted, the drivers want more money.
At the same time, such is only reasonable to seek as all other city union members have signed new contracts that provided three percent a year raises over three years with some seeing more.
A Koch Machine senior suit
Image via danieldervartanian,com
For example, several dozen of Quincy Mayor Thomas P. Koch’s senior patronage hack hire suits scored on average roughly 25% raises this fiscal year.
What the drivers are asserting is that lower pay for local school bus drivers than what other districts pay is making it harder to find drivers and so giving rise to obvious as well as other problems.
Additionally troubling, the bus drivers are concerned that the school district has been cutting back on bus monitor staffing and instead increasingly relying on older students to watch over younger students.
A school bus
A file photo
Then again, what could possibly go wrong with this approach to endeavoring to keep things under control on local school buses?
Well, for but one possibility …
Needless to say, Quincy Quarry’s ever-growing legions of loyal readers can count on the Quarry to follow this story and report updates as might be appropriate.
Everywhere people need to be paid more. It’s insane that TV’s Al Bundy was a shoe salesman basically working at a Payless Shoes, and could afford a house. I know he’s a fictional person but you get what I’m saying.
I’m one of the school bus drivers in Quincy. i love this city and its children. It takes a special person to work with children. We are the first people they see in the morning and the last one at a end of a long day. The buses are overloaded and drivers are working crazy overtime hours. Granted we are probably the only union workers in the country who are paid 40 1/2 hours a week but we are on the clock if they need us!! There is a shortage of school bus drivers nationally because drivers are paid terrible wages and often receive next to no benefits. It’s a full time job and my time is important to me. Quincy never had vendors as we did all the work. Then new management came in and started cutting things. To management it is but a business. I have never seen a School Committee member ride on our buses and thus they don’t see what all we do. We are really pretty great as we get the work for the city with no appreciation nor a healthy workplace says a lot. Treat us better and we could do even more but no one cares that drivers care for the safety of Quincy’s school children. We will be holding signs in front of City Hall next Tuesday at 3:30 pm and again on the following week’s Wednesday at 2:00 pm so as to strive to protect the children of this beautiful city. If you can, please come by and support us. Thank you!!
Very well said!
I have driven for the Quincy Public Schools district for almost 20 years. Over The last 5 years things have gotten so bad. Lack of monitors on Special Ed buses. Overcrowded buses with no supervision. Overworked drivers due to a lack of spare drivers. Having paraprofessionals making more money than CDL drivers while riding on our buses as monitors. Such shows how the suits feel about Quincy Public Schools bus drivers. We need safer buses AND more monitored buses for the safety of the children of Quincy. These children are the most precious thing to their family’s. Help us get them to and from school safely everyday. Most Quincy public school bus drivers have been transporting local school students for 20 to 30 years. Do you know any other bus company that can say that? Please come and support us at our upcoming rallies so that these children do not end up suffering a fatal accident because drivers all too often have to watch the children instead of the roads.
Our most special gift in the world is our children. In other school districts they pay their monitors as much as the drivers because they are only getting for 6 hrs per day. Look at all our vendors: they have a driver and a monitor. Hiring of people by Quincy is not run correctly. It takes months to get cleared. Not is this ridiculous, by then many of the applicants have already landed another job or when they find out the wage paid to monitors they leave. City and School officials complain that they have no money and yet our department gave back over 140 thousand budgeted but not spent to the city, money which could of used to address problems. For example, school buses used to be cleaned twice a year but now no one cleans them. This is appalling — image all those germs and such!!! Drivers do the best they can but these buses need to be power washed inside and out — it’s disgusting and I blame management for this. Please help Quincy bus drivers keep our most precious gift safe by coming to our rally and support us next Tuesday 3:30-4::30 and Wednesday the 13th from 2 to 3. These children are our future and let’s keep them safe.
i have never worked in a more toxic environment created by my bosses. I haven’t worked for them to long but no one has your back there or the backs of the children. City department heads were all given huge raises of 20 to 35 thousand a year but we are the ones who do the work. We are also short monitors because of the poverty wages paid by the city. No one has reached out to us at all. I don’t even think in his defense that the mayor of Quincy knows any of this mess. I have always driven a small bus because of seniority. When i started 5-6 years ago i used to have 8 children. Now I have 19 the children and by law they are only supposed to be on bus for no longer than an hour. Instead, it’s more like an hour and a half. We need help. Please come and support your children and the drivers and monitors who care about them. The majority of us are women. It’s still a man’s world in Quincy. We are just as important as the fire and police and of course our teachers. These children need our help. Support the drivers for the children. Thank you and see you at rallies.
Ready to Leave,
Any idea how the school bus department’s management food chain is tied to hacktocracy that is the City of Quincy? Koch relatives, idiot sons-in-law of major Koch campaign fund contributors, koched-up bff’s? Oh, and trust me, Mayor Koch, who is also thus the Chair of the School Committee, knows what all is wrong. Care, however, not so much.
Can you folks provide information about bus monitor positions? I could guarantee safety for the driver like they never have seen. No one would be left on a bus like in the news.
Johnson,
Ask and ye shall receive:
https://www.quincypublicschools.com/our_district/human_resources_department/current_employment_opportunities