LCPS hiring school-bus drivers

as the beginning of the school year nears … the las cruces public school district is looking for bus drivers. abc-7’s jamie warren is at the field of dreams where the job fair is underway. she joins us live from our new mexico mobile newsroom. and jamie, we understand you got to drive one of the buses? i did! and i have to admit… it wasn’t as hard as i thought it would be. i wanted to get a better sense of what bus drivers deal with every day…. because a few months ago, las cruces school bus drivers almost went on strike … saying they wanted better working conditions: pkg nats – bus sounds or viky talking vickie avery is now in her eighth year as a school bus driver in las cruces. she says it’s a rewarding job … that comes with its rewarding job … that comes with its fair share of challenges. vickie avery, bus driver & instructor 21:01:32 this summer it was pretty brutal when it was triple digits and were sitting right behind the engine vicky is one of — bus drivers who nearly went on strike at the end of last year. they work for s-t-s … and the drivers’ union demanded the company address certain issues like overcrowded buses, low pay… and safer buses. details of the agreement between the two were never released… but we know a strike never happened. we’ve also seen the las cruces school board and s-t-s create a bus task force… which means for the first time, the district has an open diologue with the drivers. we hopped on one together so she could show me the ropes. nat: 20:44:34 step one of driving the bus put the seat belt on before taking off i need to adjust my seat and mirrors. i made sure no one was directly in front of me. then started i started the engine 20:52:33 nat of turning key and was off. jamie standup 20:52:27 one word of advise is to always be checking all of the mirrors around you every three to five seconds. you really need to become a master at multi tasking and that’s because all of the kids in the back of the bus rely on you nats; hello miss! nats: bus driver! sot: vickie avery 21:01:17 not only are you needing to watch the traffic but you’re needing to do management to make sure there’s no harm done to the kids or they don’t harm each other the district hopes the new collaboration with drivers will make for a smoother ride sot: david del toro director of transportation lcps 20:42:04 we probably need to come up with a shorter will make for a smoother ride sot: david del toro director of transportation lcps 20:42:04 we probably need to come up with a shorter routing system and not have the kids on the bus that long maybe split the routes up on those really hot days so we can get the kids home as soon as possible sot: vickie 21:02:32 when you get a little kid that gets off the bus and goes thanks bus driver your the best it makes it all worth while drivers with s-t-s n-m make $10 an hour plus benefits. since the potential strike, they now increase hourly pay to $10.40 an hour after 90 days. because the profession has high turn over rate … s- t-s tells me they’re always recruiting. reporting from our new mexico mobile newsroom, jamie warren, abc-seven. ok, jamie with complete coverage of a story that had las cruces complete coverage of a story that had las cruces parents on the end of their seat a few months ago. thank