RUTHERFORD COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) -- After months of back and forth, the Rutherford County School Board officially passed a new bus driver contract.

The new contract offers a 17% raise, or roughly half of what was asked by the Rutherford County Bus Contractors Organization, which represents roughly 70% of district drivers. Drivers will also get a $4,000 stipend to cover insurance, something the RCBCO members didn't want to cover on their own. 

“I think we've got to the place that we are, is it fair, I don't know, we're going to find out. We're going to see how many of them sign back up,” school board member Stan Vaught said Thursday.

Drivers have until May 29 to sign the new contract. If more than 35 routes go unfilled, the board plans to buy up to 12 new school buses to fill those routes. 

“Again, this is not a business that we want to get into, I mean, I'm hoping that we don't have this number of contracted routes, we're trying to meet somewhere in the middle,” Director of Schools Jimmy Sullivan said.

Some school board members suggested buying these buses either way, in order to replace aging activity buses across the district.

“I say buy these busses and if we don't need them, I say we give them to the high schools because if we don't start addressing this problem, it's going to be a big problem down the highway,” school board member Butch Vaughn said.  

After an outpouring of opposition, the board did ultimately avoid a parent responsibility zone, or PRZ, which would have required families who lived near schools to figure out their own transportation. Despite coming up with a workaround, not everyone was on board with district-run busses. 

“Rutherford County started this, started to do their own bus services back in the late 70s, close to early 80s, and they found out in two years that it was not cost-effective, and they stopped doing it. I don't know why we're visiting back again, so I'm not going to support this one way or the other, because this is stupid,” Board Member Tammy Sharp said.

News 2 reached out to the RCBCO for comment and did not hear back. 

Cynthia Gossett with Gossett Bus Lines shared the following statement with News 2:

More than anything I'm glad it's all over. We (contractors not just the committee) were and are scared. I appreciate all the  RCBoE did to relieve fears, and to work with a less than ideal scenario for negotiations. I want to thank all the Board Members, Rutherford County Commissioners, Dr. Sullivan, the Transportation Dept., and everyone else involved for all their hours listening to us the Contractors, and doing their utmost to help us.  The state bill disallowing the County to provide insurance was a pipe bomb that was unneeded during these tense times. I'm so thankful Gov. Lee amended the law, and I'm also thankful to Dr. Sullivan for sending the letter to the County Commission requesting an RFP to potentially get us back onto the county liability policy.

Let me start by saying that there is no one to blame. Everyone involved did the best they could in the flawed system Contractor Committee operates in. I'm displeased with tactics employed by the contractor committee more than anything. They worked hard and diligently. However, they were doing so under an air of fear and desperation. The Contractors were being financially burdened to an untenable state. Instead of working with everyone, and getting ALL contractors input it was limited to those who paid membership dues to the committee. I for example didn't join. I didn't find out about the potential strike until the news reported on it. I nor others who didn't wish to follow the committee were given information on where negotiations stood at any point until a fellow contractor told me (us), or it was presented to the Board. That's not a way to represent the whole collective. The committee was negotiating a contract for members and non-members alike. Strangling information from reaching everybody caused both more fear and confusion. This lead to wild rumor and speculation that caused Contractors to become even more concerned. It was made out that the Board was the metaphorical Boogeyman and they were out to get us. All of this culminated with the threatened strike. That did nothing at all, but ruin ALL contractors name and image (whether we supported the strike or not) to the RCBoE, the County Commission, and to the general public. All it did was make us look like heels, and cause undue stress on parents. All to result in nothing. The threat didn't make the RCBoE move towards the Contractors. It caused them to harden their stance. You can see that in the meeting tonight especially from Mr. Vaughn, "The train has left the station." I don't blame him a bit for having that stance. If the Committee was more proactive and respectful I feel the contract would have been closer to what they were asking for.

I have a proposal with this. The RCBoE needs to select 6-8 contractors to a Contractor Board. Much like Board of Education has zones these 6-8 contractors will have a specified group of contractors they speak to and represent. That way everyone gets the same information and petty rivalries don't cause the whole of contractors to suffer.

Overall I'm content with the contract I feel things could be better if the Contractor Committee was more open and tactful. I will take how much the RCBoE gave to us when negotiating in less than ideal circumstances. I hope in the next round of contract negotiations the Committee is either strongly reformed, or the RCBoE takes my idea or does something similar.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/murfreesboro/rutherford-county-school-board-approves-new-bus-driver-contract/