Fayette schools may extend work hours for more than 200 transportation employees

Fayette County Schools’ Transportation officials are asking the school board to transition more than 200 bus monitors and bus drivers from 6- to 8-hour shifts for a 40-hour work week, district officials said at a Monday planning meeting.

The proposed change comes as school districts in Kentucky and nationwide have struggled to staff a full transportation workforce. Officials say extending work hours in Fayette County would help with recruitment and retention, cover over-scheduled hours, match leave-to-work obligations, and mitigate overtime, district officials said.

The Fayette school board will vote on the issue December 19.

Superintendent Demetrus Liggins said during Monday’s meeting that the proposal would be “a positive for the operations of the system.”

The school board is being asked to approve moving 215 bus monitors and bus drivers to eight hours a day from six hours a day, an agenda document said.

There are 263 bus drivers and 186 bus monitors in the district’s payroll system listed as working at six hours per day. Twelve bus drivers and 11 monitors are listed as working eight hours per day.

But of the department’s 449 employees, 125 bus drivers and 70 bus monitors get scheduled for eight-hour days to cover mid-day runs and trips.

Daryn Morris, the district transportation director, said the new proposal would be advantageous to school bus employees because it would give more of them a confirmed 40-hour work week.

Jacqueline Bigelow, a school bus driver for 17 years, said she is scheduled for 30 hours a week in the payroll system but ends up working 40 as a relief driver and dispatcher. She said she is not consistently compensated for those extra hours.

On a recent Friday, 85 employees didn’t show up for work, Bigelow said, because they had already worked their designated 30 hours.

This story was originally published December 10, 2024 at 1:31 PM.