Coast Unified seeks bus driver; department head posts merged

A series of developments has left Coast Unified School District looking for a bus driver.

The district started the fall semester down one driver, and now has two fewer department heads than it did in September. Those two positions — director of transportation and director of maintenance and operations — have been merged, and the new post is now vacant after having been briefly filled.

Superintendent Vicki Schumacher said in a phone interview Wednesday, Oct. 25, that despite the challenge, the district is “working hard to cover all of our routes, and we are successfully covering all of our routes.”

That challenge was compounded by a chain reaction at the department head level. Lee Wight, the district’s director of maintenance and operations, resigned, Schumacher said, after which trustees combined that position with the transportation supervisor at a special meeting Oct. 5.

Schumacher said other districts in the county have a single supervisor for both areas of responsibility: “It was unique that we had two positions.”

After Wight resigned, the transportation director Carrie Brown was promoted to the new merged position, Schumacher said. But she subsequently resigned, as well, creating the current vacancy.

In addition to her department head duties, Brown drove a district bus part time, the superintendent said.

“Both employees resigned and both were accepted,” she said.

Schumacher said the district has been helped by the addition of a van driver, a new position approved June 29 that has just been filled. Still, she said, the district is looking for another bus driver.

“We would love applicants,” she said. “We are very interested in anyone who is interested in becoming a bus driver.”

For information on district job openings, visit www.coastusd.org/index.php/job-postings. Or contact Kathy Barnes at 805-927-6135 or via email at kathybarnes@coastusd.org. Completed applications should be sent to Coast Unified School District, Attention: Kathy Barnes, 1350 Main St., Cambria, CA 93428.

This story was originally published October 25, 2017 at 4:38 PM with the headline "Coast Unified seeks bus driver; department head posts merged."