A school bus driver presented the Waynesboro School Board a detailed proposal for addressing the shortage of bus drivers, citing a lack of structured commercial licensing training and a five-hour daily contract cap that blocks drivers from full-time status and employer-matching Virginia Retirement System benefits.
“Waynesboro drivers have tried using internal channels for years, and those quiet complaints resulted in zero structural change. We are no longer asking for closed-door conversations. We are presenting a public mandate from 258 community members,” said Elizabeth Shifflett, the bus driver who led a petition drive that garnered signatures from city residents, parents and local school and city employees.
Shifflett, who seems to have a future as a political activist and community organizer, presented the petition to the School Board at its meeting on Tuesday, and detailed for us the key issues in the bus driver shortage.
The issues
The five-hour VRS loophole
By capping driver contracts at five-hour daily minimums, the division classifies drivers as part-time hourly workers — blocking them from employer-matching Virginia Retirement System pension funds that full-time school staff receive.
“By capping standard driver schedules at five-hour daily minimums, the district legally classifies these professionals as part-time hourly workers. We are forcing our drivers to work exhausting split shifts that take up their entire day, while using part-time contract labels to deny them matching VRS retirement funds and a viable future,” Shifflett said.
Missing CDL & de-escalation training
Local candidates are failing commercial licensing exams due to the lack of a structured internal training framework, while veteran drivers receive zero paid training in student conflict de-escalation.
“Eager local candidates are failing the required commercial licensing exams simply because this division lacks a robust, structured technical training framework to help them pass. We are choking out our own workforce pipeline before drivers can even get behind the wheel,” Shifflett said.
Budget proposals
- Structured licensing and crisis training: Shifflett proposes the creation of a comprehensive CDL candidate training framework alongside paid, ongoing development in student behavior intervention and conflict de-escalation.
- Full-time status and equal VRS matching: Eliminate the five-hour daily contract cap by establishing guaranteed minimum daily hours to secure full-time classifications and equal employer-matching VRS retirement funds.
- Competitive base pay scales: Raise driver base pay scales to aggressively outpace neighboring school divisions and stop regional recruitment losses.
- Passenger capacity caps and route monitors: Cap bus passenger densities and deploy trained route monitors on high-density runs to relieve safety and behavioral strains.
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Chris Graham
