Cobb schools propose bus driver pay raises totaling $7.6M

Cobb school bus safety

The Cobb County School District, which has been experiencing serious shortages of bus drivers over the last two years, is proposing to boost their pay by $5.25 an hour.

That’s on the agenda for both a work session and possible action Thursday night by the Cobb Board of Education.

The work session begins at 3 p.m. and the voting session starts at 7 p.m. in the board room of the Cobb County School District central office, 514 Glover St., Marietta.

The full agendas for the meetings can be found by clicking here. An executive session follows the work session.

The open meetings will be live-streamed on the district’s BoxCast channel and on CobbEdTV, Comcast Channel 24. There will be in-person public comment sessions for both; information can be found by clicking here.

In an agenda item, the Cobb school district said the new hourly rate for bus drivers would be between $25 per hour and $33.32 an hour, depending on the salary step for a given driver.

The current pay rate starts at $19.75 an hour. Drivers are eligible for benefits and are paid year-round.

The district said funding for the pay raises would come to $7.6 million and is available due to revenues generated from the rising Cobb property tax digest.

This year that growth was 11.55 percent for Cobb school district collections, higher than the initial projections of 10.49 percent, “making this request budget neutral,” the agenda item states.

The new fiscal year 2023 Cobb school district budget of $1 billion includes raises of between 8.5 and 13.10 percent for non-temporary employees.

In the last school year, the district offered multiple retention bonuses for bus drivers to address staffing shortages.

The Cobb school district employs 875 drivers and 139 bus monitors who run 870 routes daily, transporting more than 72,000 students, or roughly 70 of the enrolled students.

The work session agenda includes a presentation about the first day of school and a discussion of recent Georgia Milestones testing results.

The evening voting session includes a number of recognitions, including the girls sports program at Lassiter High School and the boys and girls sports programs at Walton High School.

They were named recipients of the Georgia Athletic Directors Association’s Director’s Cup all-sports awards.

Employees to be recognized for 40 years of service include Chester Ransom of Blackwell Elementary School and Lona Wright of Lassiter.

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