Akron Public Schools’ independent van drivers lined up Tuesday morning in the Garfield Community Learning Center auditorium to pick their routes and sign contracts for the coming year.
The annual event where drivers pick routes and sign contracts came after some drivers, who transport unhoused and special needs students, expressed consternation about changes in how routes are chosen.
There was also concern about a new contractual policy dictating where some kids can ride inside the vans and a new practice (not in the contract) around communication that centralizes operations through the district’s transportation department.
“We feel forced,” said Brandy Vickers, the spokesperson for the independent van drivers. “We didn’t have a choice. Even though we didn’t agree with the contract, it was: ‘If we don’t sign this contract, we don’t have a job.’”
Despite the discontent, at least 116 drivers picked their routes and signed their contracts. School begins for Akron’s grade 1-12 students on Aug. 29.
Many of the changes, according to APS Chief of Staff Angela Carter, were made to centralize van transportation operations in the transportation department. Many of the drivers saw this attempt at centralization and oversight as micromanagement.
The route selections and contract signings on Tuesday followed an Aug. 5 vote by members of the Akron school board to retain the long-time, independent drivers as the main source of transportation for the district’s special needs and unhoused students.
It also ensured that Templeton Transportation LLC, a driving company that bid on a contract with the district, would only be used in a supplemental capacity.
Route selection, communication procedures change
One of the main sticking points for the drivers was the route selection process. Previously, Vickers and other drivers said they were able to choose individual students to pick up and could craft their own routes based on where the students lived, where the drivers reside, and where the schools are.
This year, the students were grouped into clusters with routes already “stacked” on papers that listed multiple students who attend a single school, a process that drivers said takes away some of their autonomy.
“[Previously,] it was like we kind of just chose our kids out of a list of available kids on our own,” Vickers said. “And now we’re being told that if they call us and say they need to add a child, and if we do not take the child, they will terminate our contract.”
Carter said this change will improve operational efficiency and help the transportation department better manage the individual routes of more than 100 drivers and up to 1,000 students.
“The way routes will be handed out is a little different after the year gets started,” Carter said. “We’re looking at the facility, the vicinity that you’re driving, and then we’ll assign you a student according to the route that you currently are on.”
The administration also wants to run all communications through the transportation department – even in cases of emergency. This is a point of contention for drivers, who said the new process will slow things down and could potentially put students and drivers in an unsafe situation if there was an accident and the transportation department was slow to route another driver to pick up the students.
In years past, drivers said they communicated among themselves, with transportation department officials copied on email chains, to assist with driving kids if something happened on a route or if a new student was added to the roster of students needing transportation.
“Previously, we would put the email out and they would be able to pick it up, but it wasn’t a guarantee that it would happen within 24 [hours], so just changing things in order to make things more efficient and so that we’re making sure we’re getting the kids to school faster,” Carter said.
Vickers said this change could backfire and hinder van drivers from assisting other drivers in an emergency, since they will now have to wait for approval from the transportation department.
New seating arrangements could limit number of kids per van
The drivers also took issue with a policy that dictates that only children 13 and over, regardless of their size and weight, will be permitted to sit in the front seat, because of the airbag.
This could potentially limit the number of kids the driver can transport and the amount of money they’ll make.
“We were told that we can’t put children under 13 in the front seat, as it was Ohio law, and that’s my problem,” Vickers said. “They always say something is law, and it’s not really a law, it’s just a recommendation.”
Carter said the new front seat policy “may be a little more strict than Ohio Revised Code guidelines” but is meant to ensure safety for students and drivers while insulating the district from any liabilities.
Pay miscommunication between administration and drivers
During the July 22 Board of Education meeting, Carter said the district’s cost per route was $21.35. This year, if the drivers have a full load of six to seven students, depending on their ages and the van’s capacity, their pay for each student will be $19.28 per route.
The discrepancy between what Carter said in a July 22 meeting and what the independent contractors are making per route, according to the contract, also ruffled some feathers among the drivers.
Carter said she should’ve been more clear in the meeting. The $21.35 number she cited then was the total cost per route for the district, not necessarily what the drivers would be paid this year.
Carter said the drivers did get a slight pay increase this year, going from $130 for a full route load last year to $135 this year.
But Vickers said it’s more complicated than it seems, due to the new policy on front seat passengers.
“We had a $5 increase in the six- and seven-[passenger routes],” she said. “But it’s complicated. It’s like they did that because they’re telling us that we can’t put a kid in the front seat. So that restricts us from ever being able to drive a full seven kids.”
Vickers said that the drivers who have a van large enough to transport seven students without one in the front seat are getting a raw deal, because they won’t be paid an extra $19.28 for the seventh child.
Drivers said they will only be paid the full $135 rate if the students are pre-K, elementary and middle schoolers under 13 years old. Otherwise, the drivers will have to drive seven kids over 13 years old because of the new seat belt rule, Vickers said.
