Contract negotiations between Hamilton County Schools and its independent contract bus drivers remain tense as the deadline to finalize the contract quickly approaches.
The Hamilton County Board of Education’s transportation committee met with more than two dozen of the district’s drivers Wednesday night and tried to negotiate portions of the contract for more than an hour.
School board member Joe Wingate told the drivers the district wants them behind the wheel, but it is also tasked with ensuring there are some accountability measures written into the contract.
“It’s not a gotcha game,” he said. “We’re just trying to do our due diligence.”
After the fatal Nov. 21, 2016, Woodmore Elementary School bus crash, the board made the push to hire more independent contact drivers, boasting about their safety record. The independent drivers own and operate their own buses for the district and last school year covered 49 of the district’s nearly 250 routes.