Philly School District to contract with new yellow bus companies starting next school year

PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The School District of Philadelphia is changing yellow bus companies next school year, with one of them hiring drivers and attendants this week.

Most students take SEPTA to school, but the district provides yellow bus transportation for 23,000 public, nonpublic and charter students.

The school district’s contracts with Durham Bus Services and other yellow bus companies expire at the end of June. Deals with several new companies, including California-based Zum, take effect on July 1. Zum is holding a job fair in Port Richmond until Thursday.

Charlotte Charbono, Zum’s senior location manager, said her company is looking to hire about 250 drivers and 100 to 150 attendants, with pay for drivers starting at $30 an hour.

“Zum currently has a zero-driver shortage at any of our locations nationwide,” she said, “and the reason for that is that we invest into our drivers.”

Connie Leon of Port Richmond has been a school bus attendant for 25 years, and she’d like to continue. That’s why she was at the Zum hiring event on Tuesday.

“I filled out my application here, so what we’ve got to do is wait,” she said, “wait for them to call me.”

Janice Tucker, another current bus attendant, was more straightforward. “I need a job,” she chuckled.

Charbono said Zum also has an app that allows parents to track a bus’s location in real time. “In a day and age where you can track your pizza,” she said, “you should be able to track your children too.”