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The local school district will give full-time bus drivers $4,800 payments this year as an incentive to stay in their jobs. Part-time drivers will get $2,400.
The payments, announced by the district on Monday, Oct. 26, come after drivers protested their low compensation relative to nearby districts and said it has led to a shortage of drivers.
Howard Strang, a bus driver and vice president of the union that represents drivers and other support staff in the district, said the payments would eliminate the discrepancy in driver pay between districts.
Maine School Administrative District 75, which includes Harpswell, had to scramble to cover its bus routes before the start of the school year.
As many as a dozen drivers had left MSAD 75 since the beginning of 2026. Unable to recruit replacements, the district reorganized routes, asked employees in other roles to drive buses, and eventually inked a $637,000 contract with Ohio-based First Student Inc. to provide four additional drivers for the 2026-27 school year.
Several drivers raised concerns about their pay and benefits, as well as the district’s handling of the staffing issues, at a September school board meeting. Drivers said their colleagues were leaving MSAD 75 for higher pay and better benefits in nearby districts.
At an Oct. 8 meeting, the school board authorized Superintendent Heidi O’Leary to open negotiations with the support staff union on its next three-year contract, which begins in July. O’Leary also could agree to a temporary modification of the current contract.
The drivers will receive the stipends in four installments over the course of the school year. The amount equates to about an additional $3.50 per hour for a full-time driver. That puts MSAD 75 on par with nearby districts. MSAD 75 drivers start at $27 an hour, while officials have said drivers for nearby districts start at $30 or $31.
“It’s a nice incentive,” said Belinda Rossignol, who drives a route on Orr’s and Bailey islands. She said the drivers appreciate it.
While the agreement followed closely after the drivers spoke out at the school board meeting, Strang said the union proposed it to O’Leary in August. At that time, however, the school board had not yet elected a negotiations committee, preventing the district from formalizing an agreement. The board elected a chair for the committee in September and two additional members in October.
On Oct. 8, the school board authorized O’Leary to negotiate with the union. Strang said he and union President Erin Scott formalized the stipend agreement the next day and presented it to O’Leary and the negotiations committee the next week. The school board held a special session on Oct. 22 and unanimously approved the agreement.
O’Leary said the agreement was a priority for both the district and the union. She said “intensive, good faith, daily discussions” between the two parties allowed them to reach the deal as quickly as possible.
Strang said the delay between the drivers raising their concerns and the announcement of the stipend was a consequence of the slow pace of school district business, not a result of any unwillingness to help the drivers from either side of the negotiating table.
Rossignol and another Harpswell driver, Amanda Conant, both think they played a role.
The board “needed to hear from the horses’ mouths,” Conant said. “I think our presence at the school board was what needed to happen to get the ball rolling.”
Drivers also had voiced frustration about what they saw as a lack of communication from their union. But Strang said union leadership couldn’t share that informal negotiations were happening, even as the drivers were demanding action.
The union and the district will now turn to negotiating the next three-year contract for drivers and other support staff.
“I believe this collaborative energy will make a strong foundation for our continued negotiations on a renewed three-year contract,” Hutson Hayward, chair of the school board, said in a statement.
While the drivers are happy about the short-term improvement, both talked about what they hope to see in their next contract.
Conant and Rossignol both mentioned retirement benefits.
Conant said she hopes the new contract will match other districts’ hourly rates.
Rossignol said drivers also should get more paid time off, which would help address the number of unpaid days off during the school year.
