Fayette accepts bus driver recommendations

The Fayette County Board of Education has accepted a set of recommendations to improve the recruitment and retention of school bus drivers.

The recommendations, approved 5-0 by the board on Monday, include installing air conditioning on all buses that are used daily, and increasing the finder’s fee for referring full-time drivers from $100 to $250. The third recommendation is to increase driver salaries by approximately 6 percent over a two-year period, based on years of service.

The prorated cost for FY2017 would be $87,000; the full annual cost for FY2018 would be $131,000. Low pay has been repeated cited as a reason for the driver shortage.