Fourteen Northampton County school bus drivers who for years have received paid health insurance benefits will continue to do so, after county supervisors voted to allow the transfer of funds from school operations and instruction to pay for the benefit.
Bill Taylor of Occohannock Neck Road, a 25-year school bus driver in Northampton, spoke on behalf of the bus drivers, many of whom were in attendance at the Board of Supervisors meeting.
Taylor said the contract they sign each year indicates the bus drivers are full-time, not part-time, employees, entitling them to benefits. The benefit program has been in effect for 30 years, with at least one driver having participated that long, he said.
The total cost to the county for the fourteen drivers' health benefit is $4,200 a month.
Superintendent Richard Bowmaster said the bus drivers work four hours a day and are on call in between runs. He said Accomack County pays for health benefits for its bus drivers.
The school district also employs three full-time bus drivers who work eight hours a day.
Northampton's new policy grandfathers the 14 drivers currently enrolled in health insurance, but does not extend the benefit to bus drivers hired after July 1, 2010 or to 21 part-time bus drivers who have not enrolled in the past.
A total of $50,400 is to be transferred from operations and instruction to pay for the benefit. In addition, $44,2000 more will be transferred to the transportation category from other categories in the school budget to pay higher-than-anticipated bus lease costs.
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