CROTHERSVILLE

Only two people have the commercial driver’s license endorsement to transport passengers in a Crothersville Community School Corp. bus to sporting events, field trips and classes out of town.

This school year, however, there have been a few times when a sports team wasn’t sure if it would have a driver available to take them to a game. Plus, the minibuses have broken down a few times.

During a recent meeting, Kathie Rose shared those concerns with Superintendent Terry Goodin and the board of trustees.

Goodin said the corporation has three white minibuses that can be used, and there is one yellow minibus that’s equipped to pick up special-needs students at their home.

While a person isn’t required to have a CDL to drive a minibus, Goodin said it’s required for them to have a CDL passenger endorsement to drive a regular-sized bus.

Anyone interested in obtaining that may contact Athletic Director Greg Kilgore about filling out paperwork.

“The school corporation will pay people to go back and get their CDL if they will drive for us,” Goodin said. “That is an open request if anybody wants to do that.”

Once a person has that endorsement, it’s Kilgore’s call to ask them to transport students because their pay comes out of the athletic department’s budget, Goodin said.

“They are allowed to drive for sports or field trips, but we can’t require them to do that,” Goodin said. “That’s on their own accord. If they don’t want to drive in the evenings, they don’t have to do that.”

Rose asked if there would be an issue if a person wanted to drive on their own time as long as the school provided fuel and the bus.

“They are an employee of the school corporation, so any time they are behind the wheel as an employee of the school corporation, they are under our guard, and we have to treat them just like they are an employee,” Goodin said. “No matter whether they are doing it on their own accord or whether they’re not, that time that they would be behind the wheel, we would have to be accountable for them as a school corporation.”

Rose said the girls basketball team has had to take two minibuses to road games throughout the season. One night on the way to a game, one of them broke down and had to be towed. Parents were able to pick the girls up and take them on to the game and then drive them home afterwards.

She said the boys basketball team and cheerleaders are taken to road games in the large yellow buses.

“They would like to be together as a team,” she said of the girls, “but we don’t have anybody to drive. I would think it would be cheaper to pay to put fuel in one bus instead of two separate buses and taking them over to any sporting event.”

Rose said the minibuses also broke down on the way to a volleyball match in the fall.

“They get used a lot, and people that drive those things do the best they can on taking care of them and all of that, but sometimes, things break down,” Goodin said. “We’ve got the money in a couple of years to buy some more buses, as well, so hopefully, we’ll be able to retire some of those that aren’t living up to their task.”

He said premaintenance work is done to help prevent issues, and the buses are serviced when needed.

“It would be great if they didn’t break down,” Goodin said. “Sometimes, that happens. You can’t predict that.”

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Anyone interested in obtaining a commercial driver’s license endorsement to transport passengers in a Crothersville school bus to sporting events, field trips and classes out of town may contact Athletic Director Greg Kilgore at 812-793-2051.

The school corporation will cover the cost for someone to obtain that endorsement.

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