LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — The Clark County School District has the largest school bus fleet in the U.S. and it employs about 1,300 drivers, according to its website. Bus drivers start at a minimum of $24 an hour, which means that there isn’t much wiggle room financially.
A few of them told 8 News Now, they’re afraid of being homeless due to CCSD’s decision to not employ some of them this summer.
“We’ll return back July 29, so that’s a long time without a paycheck. A lot of us is going to go through a lot of hardship,” this driver said. He requested 8 News Now protect his identity out of fear of losing his job.
He says he’s been driving with the district for at least 10 years.
“If the bus don’t roll, the kids don’t go to school,” he said.
He told 8 News Now that CCSD drivers on a nine-month contract learned on the last day of school, they won’t be working this summer and it shocked them.
“We wasn’t even forewarned that this was going to happen. They could’ve gave us at least two months, 60-day warning to let us know, ‘Hey, there’s no funding,’” he said.
School bus aides are also impacted by this.
According to CCSD, this has to do with federal COVID-19 relief funds. The district has run out of ESSER funds, which kept nine-month contract drivers employed through the summer.
A spokesman with CCSD’s communication department said the district is relying on its 11-month contract drivers, about 220 drivers, to bus special education students, who are enrolled in the summer acceleration program. That goes from June 20 to July 17.
“They’re hurting and no one is standing up for them,” David Gomez of the Nevada Peace Alliance said.
Gomez has had bus drivers and aides come to him in dismay.
“A lot of these guys, depend on this job. They depend on the availability of work to be able to get in there and pay their bills,” Gomez said.
The drivers were told in advance they wouldn’t be working, according to CCSD. On June 14, those on nine-month contracts can bid to work during summer acceleration.
Teamsters Local 14 represents the majority of school bus drivers, several drivers say they’re phone calls have gone unanswered. They are planning to show up in mass on Monday at the Teamster’s office building looking for answers.
