Storer to provide school busing for Denair Unified

The Denair Unified School District board of trustees has hired Storer Transportation Services to take over busing students to school after failing to find bus drivers to cover its two routes.

The district’s one filled busing job, a transportation supervisor, was eliminated with 60 days’ notice in a companion item. Superintendent Aaron Rosander said the individual will move to the same management position with Storer.

Storer’s drivers have helped operate Denair’s buses on an emergency basis since the first of the year. The contract will cost $75,400 to provide and supervise drivers, using and maintaining Denair’s four buses, for the remainder of the school year. Rosander said the district will save $39,000 on what it expected to spend on busing this year.

About 120 of Denair’s 1,300 elementary through high school students ride the bus daily, filling two routes each morning and afternoon.

Repeated recruitment efforts last fall generated no qualified applicants for the part-time, split-shift job that paid $13.50 to $16 per hour, depending on experience. Instead, district employees certified to drive a bus – a custodian, a utility worker and the transportation supervisor – stepped in as needed to cover the routes.

This story was originally published January 24, 2015 at 7:32 PM with the headline "Storer to provide school busing for Denair Unified."