McGinley: Preparing for the Worst, Hoping for the Best

As of 5 p.m. Wednesday Charleston County School District officials expect school buses to run on their normal schedule Thursday.

"We've not been notified of a strike," Charleston County Schools Superintendent Nancy McGinley said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon. "We plan on operating on a normal school schedule on Thursday," 

However she urged parents to make sure they have an alternative plan in place to make sure their children get home safely in the event that a strike is called during the school day. If that were to happen, McGinley said all Charleston County schools will remain open until every student has been picked up.

Bus drivers, members of the Teamsters Local 509, are . Both the Charleston County School District and the Dorchester County School District II use Durham to operate their school bus routes. The drivers recently voted to approve a strike, but drivers have yet to walk off the job as negotiations have continued.

The drivers initially asked for $1.50 per hour pay raise, and recently reduced the request to $1 per hour, or 8 percent; Durham countered with a 3 percent increase, which amounts to roughly $.45 per hour more, saying the 8 percent request is "beyond reason."

McGinley said the district has not received any indication of when the potential strike would begin. In preparing for a worst-case scenario, the district has already identified a many as 30 people with commercial driver's licenses that would be called on to drive some of the district's buses. Several other people with CDLs have stepped forward to take over as replacement drivers and are in the process of being vetted.

Durham runs 413 buses in Charleston County and more than 150 in Dorchester County, McGinley said. Approximately 22,000 students ride school buses in Charleston County.

If a strike occurs the 30 people already on the approved replacement driver list would be tasked with making sure wheel-chair bound special needs students get to and from school. Parents of all other students will have to make other arrangements to drop off and pick up their children until enough replacement drivers can be found to cover all routes, if the strike lasts that long.

Any replacement drivers hired during the strike would be considered temporary employees of the school district.

McGinley said parents need to go over alternative plans with their children to help things run smoothly if the buses aren't running.

"Go over it with your child tonight, reaffirm in the morning, 'you will be safe, your principal has assured all parents that the school will be open, you will not be left alone, we will be there to pick you up at the end of the day,'" she said. "We want parents and school personnel working together. We will keep our facilities open until every child is picked up safely by somebody in their family or other plans have been made to carpool if that's what some families have chosen to do."

McGinley added that student safety is paramount in the district's plans to deal with the possible strike. The district will be evaluating the situation daily during the strike if it happens to determine any necessary changes. Schools will be reporting to the district office by about 10:30 a.m. every morning to highlight any issues that arise.

"This is not something we want little children to worry about," McGinley said. "We're worrying about, we're planning for it and we will continue to plan for it. Keeping them safe physically and psychologically is my number one concern right now."

During a strike school employees would be asked to arrive at school at least 45 minutes early in an effort to cut down on the increased car traffic expected at area schools.