
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, April 28, 1990                   TAG: 9004280336
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SALEM BUS DRIVERS CITE CUT

Salem school bus drivers have lodged a complaint with the school administration that the elimination of a health insurance option will equate to voiding their pay raises for the next fiscal year.

The 1990-91 school budget does not include an offer to employees in which they could opt to take as pay the $500 the school system applies toward the employees' share of health insurance, over participation in the school system's insurance policy.

Most bus drivers - and other school employees who are on the lower end of the pay scale - have in the past taken the cash option. Some drivers have taken it because they are covered under other insurance policies. Some have used the cash to apply toward policies other than the Blue Cross and Blue Shield school system policy.

The budget for the next fiscal year includes a pay increase that will raise the bus driver salary from $7,210 to $7,701. Eliminating the $500 cash option will eliminate the raise, drivers say.

"I feel like I didn't get a raise," driver Betty Orange said. "The reason I took this job was because of the $500 cash option. Now I've found out I've lost it."

Michael Bryant, director of administrative services for Salem schools, said during a meeting Friday with about 10 of the school system's 23 drivers, that the cash option cut would likely have more effect on an employee making a bus driver's salary than on a teacher making $23,000.

"I understand your concerns, your disappointment," Bryant said. But he added that the school system, faced with increasing health insurance costs, had few choices.

In an attempt to offset increased insurance costs, the employee-only share paid by the school system will increase from $500 to $900. Blue Cross informed the school system that it would not write another policy unless it achieved a level of contribution from the School Board that equaled half of the employee-only premium.

"It kills me every time we meet with Blue Cross and Blue Shield," Bryant said. "It seems like we're at their mercy. My one hope since I've worked for the school system is that we'll get enough money to cover Blue Cross."

The drivers have asked that another 2 percent be added to their 7 percent pay raise for the next fiscal year. The $18.2 million school budget was adopted by the School Board last month and is now in the hands of City Council, which will review a total $58 million spending package May 7-9.

The drivers, who had discussed going on strike, plan to take their concerns to School Superintendent Wayne Tripp.

by CNB