Hamilton County Schools replacing Transportation Supervisor Ben Coulter

Feb. 28--In the wake of the fatal Nov. 21 bus crash, Hamilton County Schools Transportation Supervisor Ben Coulter is being replaced, district officials said Tuesday night.

Coulter has been working part time in the district's IT department and leading transportation. He will be assigned to IT full time, officials said. Hamilton County Schools will hire a full-time transportation director to replace him.

Before the crash, which claimed the lives of six Woodmore Elementary School students, Coulter received numerous safety complaints about the driver, Johnthony Walker. Administrators at Durham School Services, the company contracted to provide the district's busing services that employed Walker, said Coulter did not forward several of the complaints to them.

Durham CEO David Duke said the company could only take action on the information it was provided, and received nothing that was reason to remove Walker from the route prior to the crash, despite Walker, 24, having two minor crashes prior to the fatal crash, according to his personnel file.

Coulter, along with Hamilton County Schools and Durham, faces a federal class-action lawsuit in connection with the crash. The lawsuit claims the "horror was foreseeable, predictable and preventable."

Since the crash, the Hamilton County school board has taken steps to increase the number of routes driven by independent contract drivers, claiming they are safer.

But negotiations between the independent contract bus drivers and the school system remain contentious, with both parties seeming at odds about what is fair and lawful compensation.

During a work session Tuesday night, the Hamilton County school board met with about 30 drivers, several of whom voiced frustration about the compensation plan.

Under the proposed plan, veteran drivers have to choose between receiving insurance benefits from the district or driving multiple routes and receiving a bonus of $9,500 per route to help cover insurance costs.

Lee McDade, assistant superintendent of administrative services, explained that the law prevents the district from providing drivers with benefits and allowing them to be a small business and employ others to drive additional routes.

Thirty-five current drivers were grandfathered in years ago to receive insurance, and those drivers voiced frustration that they cannot pick up additional routes without losing their benefits.

Jerry Green, an independent driver, said the drivers want both.

"I just feel [it's unfair] if we are not awarded the chance to own more than one bus," he said.

School board member Joe Wingate said the district can't legally provide that option.

"That's a wall we're not going to be able to get through," Wingate said.

He added that the drivers being discriminated against are the newer ones because they don't have the option to receive health benefits from the district and must choose a plan that gives them the additional $9,500 per route.

Driver compensation was also debated, as even the drivers were divided on how they wanted to be paid.

A couple of drivers said they were against receiving the proposed daily rate of $330 a route and wanted to be reimbursed by mileage and bus capacity.

But, Green said, a majority of the independent drivers want to be paid the flat rate, as those with routes exceeding 100 miles will get an additional mileage rate to balance out the extra distance. Under this plan, the drivers also are guaranteed 174 days of pay, according to McDade.

It costs about $316 per route covered by Durham, McDade said. And Durham drivers now make starting pay of about $15 an hour -- it was close to $13 an hour before the crash.

Some independent bus drivers are receiving more than $80,000 a year in total compensation from Hamilton County Schools, and the lowest-paid driver makes at least $55,000 annually.

School board member Joe Smith said the board wants to increase the number of independent bus drivers, noting how McDade is working to do what's best for the system and meet the drivers' needs.

"Somehow we need to meet in the middle," Smith said. " what is meeting in the middle? What does that look like?"

He didn't receive an answer, and McDade is expected to continue negotiations with the drivers before the board picks the issue back up for discussion.

In January, the school board voted to send out a request for proposals for a contract to cover a majority of the district's about 240 routes, as Durham's contract is set to expire this summer. The RFPs were due Tuesday, but the board did not address it.

Durham previously said the company planned to apply for the contract. Since the crash, Durham has implemented a variety of safety upgrades, including an online system that tracks complaints that both the school district and Durham can access.

Contact staff writer Kendi A. Rainwater at [email protected] or 423-757-6592. Follow her on Twitter @kendi_and.

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This story was updated Feb. 28 at 11:45 p.m.

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