By Lee Ross
Mountain View Telegraph
With 28 new bus drivers and in just a few weeks and more on the way, the Moriarty-Edgewood School District is seriously beefing up its transportation department.
The change happened because the Moriarty-Edgewood School District's main school bus contractor, Plant School Transportation, closed its doors in June, just two months before the first day of school. That left school officials scrambling to come up with a replacement.
After some debate, the school board decided in late July that the district would take up the slack.
Despite a few deadlines looming this month — such as the first day of school for grades 1 to 12 on Aug. 20 — District Transportation Supervisor Ernie Sandoval said he is confident all the pieces will be in place on time.
Of minimum 36 bus driver openings the district needed to fill and a handful of positions it wants to fill, there are fewer than 10 open positions. Many of the drivers hired by the district transferred from jobs in other districts, so they have needed minimal training, Sandoval said.
Many used to work at Plant School Transportation, which makes the transition even easier, Sandoval said.
“They will be driving their old route (from) last year,” he said. “The pay will be very similar to what they were getting at Plant.”
What will be different is those drivers will be enrolled in the district's retirement program and will be eligible for the district's health, dental and vision insurance programs.
In addition to the 28 already hired, there are eight drivers who need more extensive training, Sandoval said.
“Some had to be trained from the ground up,” he said. “Out of eight, there were three who had some portion of the training already.”
The district also has hired a mechanic and a secretary but is still looking for substitute drivers in case a driver misses work because of illness or some other reason.
For the first 40 days of school, the district will cover the newly hired employee paychecks out of its current operating budget, Sandoval said. After that, the Public Education Department will review the costs accrued and adjust the school's budget accordingly.
The district also is obtaining the 36 buses it needs. It has a few buses on hand already and 20 new buses being prepared. The new buses cost more than $1 million, a tab that is being paid by the state Public Education Department.
The remaining buses are on loan from districts in Farmington, Cuba, Bernalillo, Los Lunas and other locations in the state.
Because of all the changes to the way the district does its busing, there will be a special orientation day just for the transportation department on Friday.
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