N.J. school district hikes bus driver pay to $35 an hour, $1K signing bonus – NJ.com

The bidding war for bus drivers is on as New Jersey school districts grapple with shortages blamed on the coronavirus pandemic.

In Essex County, the South Orange/Maplewood district is offering new hires $35 per hour, throwing in $1,000 signing bonuses and offering $500 for successful referrals.

That’s a higher rate than any of the 25 school bus companies and school districts spotted two weeks ago by NJ Advance Media advertising for bus drivers on Indeed.com.

South Orange/Maplewood, at that time, was offering $30 per hour — the highest of the sampled school districts but slightly behind The Beloved Charter School in Jersey City, which was offering $33 per hour and $1,000 signing bonuses.

By comparison, the pay rate for public bus drivers in New York City via the Metropolitan Transit Authority starts at $23.84 per hour.

South Orange/Maplewood boosted its incentive package after the K-12 district found itself without any substitute drivers and was forced to reassign transportation employees to cover for absences and other gaps, among other problems.

The school district Business Administrator Eric Burnside told NJ Advance Media that six applications had been received since the new benefits were advertised about a week and a half ago, but that it would take a while to review the candidates.

“We are going to continue our recruitment efforts in hopes of getting more high-quality applicants to fill the roles,” Burnside said on Tuesday.

Referencing routing problems outlined to parents in a Sept. 23 letter, Burnside said that “delays in pickups and drop-offs, for the most part, have been resolved.”

South Orange/Maplewood is the latest school district making an aggressive push for new school bus drivers amid the shortage impacting many schools in New Jersey and across the nation.

In Passaic County, the Wayne school district publicized last month a starting rate of between $26 to $28 per hour after losing about a dozen drivers, including some who are at least 70 years old and had cited COVID-19 concerns in deciding to leave.

School district officials in Toms River, in Ocean County, on Monday extended until Nov. 30 a $3,000 retention bonus for new hires who stay on the job for at least one year. The offer had been set to expire Sept. 30.

The school district in Camden also recently announced it would pay parents $1,000 to drive their own children, or pay for NJ Transit bus passes.

Richard Bozza, executive director of the New Jersey Association of School Administrators, was asked by NJ Advance Media whether the rising demand for bus drivers could create a “bidding war” among school districts.

“That certainly will occur. The question is to what degree. A lot of these people live locally, and probably don’t want to go too far from home to work,” Bozza said.

Bozza added that school districts also face challenges from private companies, most notably Amazon, for drivers.

“We’re in competition with a lot of people,” he said.

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Rob Jennings may be reached at rjennings@njadvancemedia.com.