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Drivers, mentors appear at school board meeting

• Dougherty school bus drivers presented a list of issues to the board through their union representative.

Holly McCarthy

ALBANY — School bus drivers in the Dougherty County School System want some changes made in their working conditions.

Chip Warren, national organizer/representative of National Association of Government Employees, spoke on behalf of school bus drivers during the Dougherty County Board of Education meeting Monday night. Issues addressed included bus mechanical problems, job postings and protocol for dealing with children and parents.

Warren said bus drivers felt they had no opportunity to apply for other jobs within the system because positions were not announced or advertised, and that drivers wanted to receive intervention training regarding unruly children and confrontations with parents.

Also, drivers requested having an assigned coworker act as a steward during any session in which an employee is questioned or disciplined.

“My understanding is that in the past that took place and it worked well,” Warren said. “The employees didn’t feel intimidated, and we ask the board to seriously consider allowing this.”

Dougherty Superintendent Sally Whatley began the school board meeting by expressing condolences for the tragedies endured by the the families of Joshua Perry and D.J. Vinson. Vinson, 23, and Perry, 11, both drowned in the Flint River on Aug. 3, as Vinson tried to rescue the boy.

David Adams, assistant principal of Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School, said in his invocation, “when one hurts, we all hurt.” Relatives of both victims work with the Dougherty County School System.

In other business, retired Dougherty superintendent of schools John Culbreath reiterated the mission of the Concerned Black Men of Albany.

The newly-formed group announced Aug. 4 its plans to help African-American boys at two elementary schools by mentoring and tutoring.

“You have to stake tomatoes if you expect them to grow straight,” Culbreath said. “We plan to be the tomato stake.”

Culbreath said the group plans to appeal to men in the community “who want to invest in our young people.”

The group plans to mentor boys from kindergarten through fifth grade from Alice Coachman Elementary and Magnolia Elementary on issues such as academic achievement, good behavior, manners, self-respect and respect for others; “things that make life more wholesome,” Culbreath said.

Speakers included William Wright, who addressed the board with questions about contracts awarded to black-owned businesses.

The board agreed to table Wright’s questions, saying he had presented the same issue several times and had no new information.

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