Though Livingston School bus drivers are back at work, most still not satisfied

LIVINGSTON PARISH – Despite a proposed pay raise by the school board, bus drivers in Livingston parish still aren’t happy.

“We do one of the most important jobs out there. We transport kids everyday. These are children that we take to school everyday. We’re in education. Their most important thing is to get them to school so they can get an education and we’re treated like dirt on the ground and we don’t get paid hardly anything to do so,” driver Dana Helm said.

The raise consists of an additional $10 per extra route and an extra $1500 a year for about 10 percent of drivers.

A group of about a dozen bus drivers showed up to the school board office Monday morning to say it’s not enough.

“We gave a proposal to get paid for breakdown and to get a raise and to get air conditioner on our buses and we have been shot down. It’s been thrown in the garbage. We’ve been overlooked and now we’re tired of it.”

A couple drivers shared their pay sheets with WBRZ. Some made less than $20,000 last year.

The Livingston situation is reflective of what’s going on with bus drivers in school districts in other parishes.

In August, all but one school bus driver in Baker refused to go to work over a pay dispute. 

Livingston Schools Superintendent Joe Murphy said no child was left at a school when drivers first failed to show up last week.

Despite their grievances, most of the drivers returned to work Monday, they say because of the bonds they’ve developed with their riders.

“I want all my parents and my children to know, if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be doing this because I do not pay my bills with that money, I do it because I love them.”