Rochester Community Schools Hiring Bus Drivers!

Dear Rochester Community School District Families,

As a dedicated community partner, we would like to start off by sincerely apologizing for the ongoing school bus transportation disruptions the families and community have experienced. We are deeply remorseful for being unable to provide the Rochester community with service excellence as a result of the ongoing driver shortage within the school transportation industry. As it stands, the impact of the driver shortage is substantial and out of all our locations in the state of Michigan, Rochester has unfortunately been impacted the worst.

Currently, we are staffed with 80 drivers for 90 routes, which includes drivers who are on leave for either medical or other personal reasons. As a result, we are still short 10 drivers despite having added drivers since last year.

Durham School Services firmly believes that students deserve safe and reliable transportation to and from school. Therefore, our team members have remained steadfast in their dedication to getting students to school safely while also putting in double the effort to recruit new drivers.

New recruitment efforts and benefits include:

• New wage package that went into effect on 1/1/2023 that includes a new $22/hour starting wage up from $20/hour with an additional $250 monthly stipend. Additional benefits include medical, dental, 401k with match, and more

• Utilizing third-party providers to employ temporary drivers

• Enlisting the assistance of spare drivers from sister locations

• Dedicated recruiting resources aimed at identifying more potential candidates

• On-site open houses

• Advertisements at local establishments with high foot traffic

• Flyers distributed and mailed in targeted neighborhoods

In addition to those efforts and the new wage package...

Durham School Services also offers the following bonuses:

• $4,000 for those who possess a CDL license

• $3,000 for those with partial CDL without/S endorsement

• $2,000 for those with no credentials

Despite the challenges we still face with the ongoing industry-wide driver shortage, our commitment to RCS students and community is unwavering. We will continue to dedicate ourselves to resolving the driver shortage issue in Rochester as quickly as possible so that we can honor the promise we made to the community to get its students to school safely, on time, and ready to learn.

If you know of any individuals who would be interested in becoming a positive force in helping students get to school safely, on time, and ready to learn, please encourage them to join the Durham School Services team as a school bus driver. Interested individuals can learn more and apply by CLICKING HERE.

Sincerely,

Mark Hannah
Senior Vice President, North Central
Durham School Services






Rochester Community Schools Mission

To provide a quality education in a caring atmosphere for students to attain the necessary skills and knowledge to become lifelong learners and contribute to a diverse, interdependent and changing world.

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February 3, 2023, Rochester Community Schools, Rochester.Life