Butler School Board hears complaints from bus drivers
BUTLER TWP — A group of Valley Lines bus drivers aired grievances about safety and student discipline Monday night before the Butler School Board.
Vicky Fleske, a bus driver for 25 years, said that in recent years the district has not been disciplining students and supporting the drivers properly.
“We’re trying to discipline our kids on the bus and trying to get them to and from school safe, but the drivers are giving up on writing up (misbehaving students) because we’re writing and writing and writing and we’re not getting anything back from the district. There’s no discipline being done,” Fleske said.
Several of the drivers referenced a recent incident in which the district told Valley Lines to remove a driver from his route after he broke from established procedure in disciplining middle school students by doing a “brake check” last week in downtown Butler.
In response to the comments from about 10 drivers and community members, school Superintendent Brian White acknowledged that the district’s process for disciplining students has not been working and that it needs to be changed.
White noted that there is a seven-step process in place to handle complaints about students’ behavior. The system is often inefficient and communication has sometimes been poor between the busing contractor and school administrators, he said.
A full story appears in Tuesday's Butler Eagle.
