Bus drivers request holiday pay
By By Georgia E. Frye / staff writer
April 29, 2003
A routine meeting of the Meridian Public School Board became more like a church service Monday as bus drivers' demands for holiday pay began with a prayer and prompted shouts of "amen."
Willie Clark, a bus driver for the Meridian school district, told school board members and a crowd of 100-plus, "We will get an attorney and we will sit out tomorrow." A check with the school district's transportation office today indicated that buses were running as usual.
Clark and others attended the meeting to speak out against the way they and other classified employees are paid by the district. Classified employees include teacher's assistants, cafeteria staff and custodians.
Classified employees are currently paid over a 10 month period and want their salaries divided into 12 pay periods in order to be paid over the summer months when they are not working.
School board members discussed the matter in a work session last week and were advised by Joseph Adams, a labor attorney from Jackson, they could not divide salaries into 12 pay periods and remain in compliance with state and federal law.
School Board attorney John Compton said the pay scale must stay the way it is to avoid potential lawsuits from employees. Compton said paying the employees over a 12 month period violates state and federal law in two ways workers are paid in advance for hours they have not worked and dividing salaries for certain employees over a 12 month period would drop some salaries to below the minimum wage level for each pay period.
Teachers assistants and bus drivers said they should be able to choose how they are paid. They also said classified employees in the Lauderdale County school district are paid over a 12 month period.
The board took no formal action on the matter during the meeting.
Teachers assistants also attended the meeting to speak out about another matter, the recent school closing for bad weather. Teacher's assistant Mae Beth Dean said teachers assistants were not paid for the day off two weeks ago when flooding caused Meridian and Lauderdale County Schools to be closed.
Dean said they had the choice of either using a sick day or a personal day in order to be paid.
School Board President Fred Wile said he believes the district is doing the prudent thing, but acknowledged the board is walking a tight rope between the law and taking care of employees.
Other business
In other business, the board heard a report on a school uniform survey distributed by PTA Council President Connie Shannon. Shannon said of the 5,000 surveys that were distributed, 1,045 have been returned. She said 673 respondents or about 64 percent said they favor school uniforms.
