After delays and shortages this year, students got to and from school smoothly Monday.
The Monroe County Community School Corporation officially terminated its contract with the Michigan-based Auxilio Services on Oct. 13 after it failed to meet the requirements set by the school district, according to Andrew Clampitt, MCCSC's public relations officer.
He said the school district had been using its pool of substitute drivers previously, and Auxilio Services taking over the 42 routes was intended to pick up the slack from the shortage of drivers.
But it did not go as MCCSC intended. He said the company has only provided 18-19 drivers since the first day of school. This has left students with delays and a lack of transportation to school.
The school board made changes with wage increases and providing part-time work with full-time benefits, which have helped encourage more hiring for MCCSC transportation.
The new benefits and incentives for bus drivers include health, life and dental insurance becoming available with a retirement package included in the job, according to the MCCSC website. Higher wages depending on the amount of a prospective employee's experience is also a new incentive.
"We're actually using more drivers today than we have all year," Clampitt said. "That's all completely in-house."
He said these changes to hiring incentives came after the action was taken to hire Auxilio, and when it did not meet its obligations, MCCSC reacted. He said the MCCSC transportation department is still working to continue to pick up the lack of drivers from Auxilio's failure to meet its contract by hiring and training more drivers.
