Background checking local school bus drivers
It’s a job that’s getting more and more difficult to fill.
“I just think the people that want to do school bus driving – it’s not as plentiful as it used to be,” said Susan Salucci, Asst. Superintendent of Human Resources for the Orcutt Union School District.
But for those who do decide to become school bus drivers for places like the OUSD, they have to be fingerprinted and entered into a system with the Department of Justice. From there, their name gets put on a list with the DMV.
“We have what are called Department of Motor Vehicle Pull Notices for all our drivers so those pull notices will come up for any moving violation they have in their own personal vehicle because we want to keep track of their own driving record because they’re driving our children,” Salucci explained.
Salucci says they’ve started to install even more cameras on buses and review the tapes frequently.
“The film in those cameras are checked randomly three or four times a week. It’s not like we’re looking for something wrong, we’re looking for what’s going right and are the rides going smoothly and that type of thing.”
When a parent needs to make a complaint about a driver, Salucci says she’s the one who takes in all the reports.
“We take every complaint, every concern seriously and we would follow up on that immediately.”
For students who are getting a new bus driver this year, Salucci recommends their parents try to meet the driver during the first week of school. The district currently has a little more than a dozen bus drivers and they plan on continuing to upgrade the surveillance on all of their buses.
