Should bus drivers and attendants be required to complete annual fitness tests, including lifting a 50-pound weight, in order to keep their jobs?
The Rapides Parish School Board is being asked to revise job descriptions for those positions to include the test, and some drivers and attendants are not happy. One woman called it a ploy to force workers out during a discussion at the board’s regular meeting on Tuesday.
Members ultimately sent the issue by a unanimous vote to the June personnel committee meeting for more discussion.
But it began the meeting on the consent agenda, which means it had been approved by a committee vote and would have passed unless a member pulled it for discussion. Wally Fall did that, saying he had concerns.
“I see what they’re trying to do, and that’s a good thing, but we may have some bus drivers that can’t do that,” said Fall, mentioning lifting a 50-pound weight.
He suggested making the new requirements apply only to new hires. He also said he feared the district would lose drivers under the new requirement.
Board President Mark Dryden asked Alan Fontenot, the district’s transportation director, to brief members on the new job descriptions. Fontenot said the positions “can be and is a physical job at times.” He said people in those positions have had to undergo medical examinations for several years, but those haven’t included the proposed physical fitness tests.
If passed, drivers and attendants would have to show they can use bus stairs to enter and exit, can move special education students either in wheelchairs or by a pulley and can lift or help these students into specialized seats.
The department wants to add three tasks to their annual physicals to test employees — a step test that simulates entering and exiting a bus, fastening safety straps and harnesses and moving a 50-pound weight.
“God forbid, if we’re ever in an emergency situation where a bus has to be evacuated, where that bus is on its side or if it’s upright, a special-needs bus, a wheelchair lift, may be inoperable,” said Fontenot. “How are we gonna get that student off the bus?”
The same applies to any bus, he said, because students could be injured, unconscious and unable to move on their own. He called drivers and attendants heroes for the work they do every day.
“And so we’re just asking to make sure that the heroes that we have are able to do the job, we’re asking them to do it safely, securely, to protect our students, but also to protect the employee,” he said.
But Fontenot said the district doesn’t want an employee to attempt a physical task they cannot do.
Rapides Parish school bus drivers and attendants might have to undergo a physical fitness test, but the discussion has been moved to a June committee meeting.
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He called the tests, which includes lifting 50 pounds 2 feet off a floor, “reasonable expectations to do minimally on the bus.”
Member Willard McCall, who sits on the personnel committee, said 50 pounds isn’t light. He said the attendants are “not the youngest” and that the department has trouble now hiring for positions.
He complained that he saw nothing in writing during the April 21 committee meeting that stated what would be required.
The new job descriptions state employees “shall undergo an annual physical to determine medical and physical wellbeing to perform any duties related to the position,” but they do not specifically state what that would entail.
Fontenot later said the tests are to begin in June and that employees who fail any portion will have a year to retest on the part they didn’t pass.
Member George Johnson asked Fontenot what he’s done about possibly losing up to 30% of the district’s drivers in August. A woman in the audience muttered it likely would be 40% to 50%.
“This first year is going to be a trial implementation,” Fontenot responded. “So we’re not going to necessarily lose anybody come August unless they voluntarily chose to do so.”
Member Dr. Stephen Chapman asked Fontenot if the department’s employees were surveyed, and he said yes and no. He said a survey was sent to 250 contracted and substitute drivers and attendants, but only 58 responded.
Of those 58, 63% were not in favor of the fitness tests.
When Dryden called for public comment, the first one was a bus driver, Gregory Tennie, who said he’s been driving a bus for almost 30 years. He called the weight-lifting requirement “absurd” and asserted that the district’s own rules state he’s not supposed to touch students.
Tennie said the district is opening itself to potential lawsuits. He also said he doesn’t have any medical training to help students.
The next person to speak was a woman who identified herself as an attendant for special-needs students. She said she has no trouble with steps and she might be able to pick up 50 pounds.
“But I can do my job,” she said, adding that she didn’t think it was fair to have them do the weight test. She said she cares for a student she estimated to weigh about 280 pounds.
“I can’t do nothing with him” and neither can the bus driver, she said. She told board members she agreed with Fall.
“Y’all not trying to give us a raise, but you trying to force us out before we get to our retirement,” she said. “That’s not fair to us. Cost of living going up, but nobody’s giving us even a hint of raising our salary, but you’re trying to force us out to pick up 50 pounds and hurt us.”
Committees are scheduled to meet on June 16 at the board’s office at 619 Sixth St. in downtown Alexandria.
This article originally appeared on Alexandria Town Talk: Fitness tests for Rapides bus drivers? School Board to discuss again