With students and teachers now settled into the regular routine at Butler County schools, school bus drivers also are settling in back on the roads.

Campbell Bus Lines, in West Sunbury, employs drivers at dozens of schools including its main district, Moniteau.

Driver Gus Thompson of Eau Claire said he’s worked for Campbell on-and-off for about two decades. He was a substitute driver in the past but has driven full-time the past two years.

“I would say the training that you have to go through is the big thing that has changed,” Thompson said. “You have to put more hours in before you can take your test. They are very safety conscious in the school district and at Campbell.”

Company representatives Troy and Karen Hull said Campbell follows federal safety laws for hiring drivers.

Troy said individuals who apply to drive a bus must pass fingerprinting, child abuse and motor vehicle reports, a 14-hour training class, and a three-hour Act 126 child abuse and reporting training.

“Then they go in and take four written tests at the motor vehicle department, which in turn will give them a permit,” Troy said. “They also have to have a physical, then we do pre-employment drug and alcohol (screenings).”

After that, Troy said applicants work one-on-one in the bus with a trainer. A prospective driver may spend 30 hours in the bus before the trainer approves him to take the driving test.

“If they pass, they pass. If they fail, we’ll go back,” Troy said. “We don’t try to rush through.”

Karen said it can take eight to 10 weeks to earn a permit before training in the bus. After an applicant passes his driving test, the school board must approve him to drive for the district.

Troy said the company pays for applicants’ testing in the hope that Campbell will gain a good driver, but some applicants are rejected up front.

“If there’s someone with child abuse, the school board’s not going to approve. We’re not going to approve,” Troy said. “If there’s a DUI, we’re not going to be able to use you. We take it to the board, but we know what the end result is going to be.”

Applicants with certain health conditions, such as diabetes, also are denied for safety reasons.

“That’s the law,” Troy said. “If you have some kind of heart condition, you have to take a stress test every year. It’s not just wham-bam, you passed.”

Karen said testing continues throughout a driver’s career.

“Every year they have to get their physical,” Karen said. “Then every four years you have to get recertified.”

The recertification is another seven hours in class and three on the bus with a trainer.

Thompson said he drives about 85 miles a day with students at Dassa McKinney Elementary and Moniteau High School.

He said his students don’t give him any trouble, but he sometimes encounters problems when parents aren’t at the bus stop.

“When you run into the parent running late, you have to sit there and that makes the rest of the students late,” Thompson said. “Then those parents are wondering where their children are.”

Thompson said he has taken elementary students to the bus garage to wait for parents who don’t come to the bus stop, which is standard procedure.

Full-time mechanics at Campbell handle maintenance work for drivers like Thompson.

Karen said factors such as the number of students per bus and pay rates for drivers can vary greatly because of differences in daily routes and extracurricular routes.

Troy said an individual driving a bus larger than 26,000 pounds drives about 25 hours a week during the school months for $20,000 to $25,000 per year.