SEBRING — One school bus driver hopes the district's support workers vote down the tentative contract agreement Sunday so a better salary increase can be negotiated. According to the School Board of Highlands County, the tentative agreement reached Nov. 9 calls for an average salary increase of 4 percent and a total salary and benefit package increase of 5.86 percent. According to the tentative agreement, each pay step will increase by 2 percent. Each year everyone moves up a step, except the senior employees, who have reached the top pay step. About one-third of the 700 support staff are at the top of the salary schedule and will be getting a 2 percent raise. "When we vote on our contract, we are voting on a 2 percent increase — period," said Mary Hein, a bus driver. "We are not voting on 4 percent. It would be nice if they increased my step by 4 percent, but they are not." The substitute drivers would only get a 2 percent raise because their pay is solely based on hourly salary, she said. ...more

November 28, 2007

BARTOW - Margie Conner is out of the shack and back on the bus. But she's still not driving. ...more

November 21, 2007

A Hillsborough County school bus driver is free on $2,000 bail today after police said she sold officers about 30 bootleg DVDs of movies currently in theaters. ...more

November 20, 2007

For about two years, Tampa police homicide Detective Eric Houston searched for evidence to prove something investigators long suspected. ...more

November 1, 2007

TAMPA - Seven years after a Tampa woman's disappearance, police are saying her former boyfriend killed her and have secured a warrant for his arrest. ...more

October 31, 2007

Every morning, a hired car picks up Margie Conner at her north Lakeland home and drives her 20 or so miles to Bartow and the school district transportation center. A round trip can cost more than $50. ...more

October 25, 2007

Every morning, a hired car picks up Margie Conner at her north Lakeland home and drives her 20 or so miles to Bartow and the school district transportation center. A round trip can cost more than $50. Once there, the 58-year-old school bus driver reports to a guard shack, where she sits alone doing nothing for nearly six hours – at $11 an hour. Sometimes she reads a book. She gets two 15 minute breaks and uses the bathroom at the main office. At the end of the day, another hired car takes her home. All this is paid for by Polk County taxpayers, roughly $1,700 so far. ...more

October 24, 2007

A Hillsborough County school bus driver involved in a crash that injured three East Bay High students and another person Thursday morning had been convicted of 12 previous traffic violations. ...more

October 19, 2007

I also wanted to respond to the letter from Ms. Walker. So sorry for her and Darrel Smith whom I have ridden with on his way to work. I have been riding the path since day one, and there are a lot of nice considerate drivers out there, then there are some not so. Yes, I have to stop and get off my bike a lot, but I'd rather do that than have someone hit me or someone complain. Sometimes it is even embarrassing when someone stops to let me go through and I have already gotten off the bike, because it takes me a while to get the thing going again. I will bet that these people driving cars and complaining about us bikers also sometimes have to walk where there is traffic. Think about it. Bet they hate it when the vehicle will not stop to let them by. I also drive a car, and yes, I do stop and motion a pedestrian (even if not in a crosswalk) to pass in front of me. I do not have a stop sign in front of me either. ...more

September 14, 2007

BRANDON - Eugenia Mitchell Shuler, the Hillsborough County school bus driver cited in a crash Tuesday that slightly injured 11 middle school students, resigned today. She submitted a one-page form letter to the school board office in downtown Tampa. ...more

September 5, 2007