CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, S.C. — Some bus drivers in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, protested by not showing up for work Monday.
The school district said some drivers in the Pageland area are upset that their weekly hours were adjusted to align with a state audit. District officials said this caused on route to not run Monday morning.
Chesterfield County transportation leaders said the district has been hiring bus drivers since before the pandemic led to a labor shortage that's affected schools across the U.S.
WCNC Charlotte found that starting pay in Chesterfield County is just $10.48 an hour, almost $7 less than what Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is offering new bus drivers. CMS has about 147,000 students and is the second-largest county in North Carolina. Comparatively, Chesterfield County Public Schools in South Carolina has about 63,000 students.
Chesterfield County Schools issued the following statement:
"Chesterfield County Schools did have some bus drivers in the Pageland area who did not report to drive students on Monday, Dec. 13, apparently upset that recently some drivers had had their number of weekly hours adjusted to align with a state audit. The loss of bus drivers, however, only caused one route not to be run this morning.
Bus drivers are paid an hourly wage based on the length of their routes. A recent GPS audit of those routes by the state of South Carolina adjusted some bus drivers' total hours. Due to the audit by the state, some route times were increased, and some route times were decreased. According to the state audit, some routes had previously been paid for more hours than what they should have been.
The administration is reviewing these changes to determine if there are any discrepancies.
Any bus driver who believes that there is a discrepancy between those GPS hours provided by the state and their routes should speak to their immediate supervisor to discuss those potential discrepancies."
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