Could This Be The Job For You?

Looking for a job with flexible hours? Summers off? You could be a Howard County school bus driver. Yes, the school year has already begun but they are still looking to fill some openings. Click here for more information.

Seeing this made me think of how being a teacher in HCPSS and being a bus driver are similar, and not so similar. One thing that is probably similar, bus drivers and teachers often have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, plus at least one other job in the summer. One thing that's different: bus drivers don't work directly for the school system. They are employed by a number of approved contractors who have been selected to work for the school system.

Hmm...I wonder what would happen if bus drivers worked directly under the supervision of HCPSS...(Cue fantasy music here...)

Each year bus drivers would be given more riders and a longer route, but the same amount of time to complete it, and the same amount of fuel.
Bus drivers would find it necessary to purchase any additional fuel, bus cleaning supplies, and complete minor repairs out of their own pockets.
Bus drivers who complained of carbon monoxide leaks inside the bus would be pooh-poohed, and any bus-driver who let parents know that the leaks were responsible for children's subsequent ailments would be threatened with demotion or dismissal.
Parents will not be notified of the health risks of carbon monoxide leaks because it is a "bus maintenance issue."
Evaluation of job performance would not be based on safety of driving and care of students, but rather upon some completely unrelated and time-consuming task, such as testing children on bus mechanics.
The best bus drivers,who had worked hard to build up rapport with students and parents, would routinely be moved to other unfamiliar routes without rhyme or reason.
Bus drivers would be required to fill out a huge amount of paperwork daily on "important data" but would not be given time in their workday to complete it.
The list of "important data" would be formulated by people in Central Office who had never driven a school bus.
Monies needed to improve training for bus drivers, hire additional needed bus drivers or repair buses and/or buy new ones would instead be spent on either a) a student survey called "what kind of bus rider are you?" or a promotional DVD to be given to all families entitled, "Our buses are the best: strong riders of the road in HCPSS."

Driving a bus filled with children is hard enough without all of that thrown in, don't you think? It's a good thing that's only a blogger's imaginary world, not the real one.

Oh, it looks like they are still hiring teachers for his year. Interested?

Comments

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents. When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word. Days passed. They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts. Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public. So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that. But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...

Separate and Unequal

Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not. It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...

Village Green/Town²

Search This Blog