ROANOKE, Va. – Durham School Services, located in Roanoke, is facing backlash from its employees because of pay issues.
Durham School Services is the company that provides school buses and drivers to Roanoke City Public Schools.
One Durham bus driver in Roanoke, who wished to remain anonymous, spoke with 10 News about the struggles bus drivers are facing, like staffing shortages, delays in paychecks, and bad behavior from students.
To show their disapproval, dozens of bus drivers planned a walk-out for last week.
“We had decided, you know, if the pay wasn’t right Friday morning then we were going to give a signal over the radio that we weren’t coming in that afternoon,” said one bus driver.
At Tuesday night’s Roanoke City School Board meeting, 10 News asked Durham’s Director of Business Development, John Ziegler about the delays in paychecks.
“I would say we have not been perfect on payroll but we have put solutions in place and we have gotten a lot of corporate support. We pay weekly, so that is a tall task. We pay weekends on Saturday and have that paycheck in employees’ hands on Friday. So, we are working to improve that,” said Ziegler.
10 News also asked one Durham bus driver what she thinks needs to be done to make her job and other drivers’ easier.
“That’s a hard question to answer because honestly, a lot of things need to happen. We would need a lot more support from the schools than what we are getting,” she said. “Durham needs better management They need to do what they’re supposed to do and the main thing they are supposed to do is provide us support and pay us and they don’t do that.”
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