Bus driver warns board $12 field-trip rate undercuts recent pay gains

Tessa Perky, a school bus driver for 22 years who said she has driven in Carroll County for seven years, told the Carroll County Board of Education that the district's policy paying drivers $12 per hour for field trips creates a significant pay cut and discourages drivers from taking trips.

"When we go and do field trips, our pay drops from our regular hourly rate to a $12 an hour. And that really makes it difficult for us... there's drivers that will not... they refuse to drive field trips because of that concern," Perky said, adding that the reduction can be more than half of a driver's hourly rate. She told the board she could gather other drivers' signatures in support of a change.

Perky contrasted Carroll County's practice with Douglas County, where she said drivers received their regular hourly rate for all duties. The board did not take immediate action during her public comment but heard her request as part of the public-input period.

The comment arrived during the board's public-input segment; no staff response or explicit timeline for review of the pay practice was recorded in the meeting minutes.

Next steps: Perky asked the board to consider a small increase in field-trip pay or aligning trip pay with a driver's regular hourly rate; the transcript does not record any commitment from the board or staff to study or change the policy.