Photo: Eric Carroll, screenshot from Cobb Board of Education video

By Rebecca Gaunt

Eric Carroll introduced himself at Thursday’s Cobb County school board meeting as a 14-year employee of the fleet maintenance department, then questioned why he had never seen anyone from the dais in the shop.

“You just have forgotten us. We’re just pushed aside,” he said.

He explained that he had followed the chain of command to report safety issues and spoke to multiple district staff in supervisor positions before going public Thursday night.

Carroll described his meeting with the transportation department director as the “most humiliating meeting” of his life.

“Have you ever sat and tried to talk to someone while they are scrolling on their phone, or they’re just smiling at you?” he said.

Carroll did not go into detail about what safety concerns he reported.

BJ Bailey, a nine-year employee of the department, spoke next.

“I’m sure you’re all aware of the increasing growth of this district. Yet we’re lacking things that we crucially need,” he said.

Bailey told the board there is a lack of diagnostic equipment for diagnosing and fixing buses. Some of the equipment they use is old and needs constant repair, and the low wages prevent them from hiring qualified mechanics.

“I’m not sure if any of you are aware, we are short staffed at every single bus shop in this county. Every single one. Which puts a lot more tension on the rest of us to make sure these buses are well maintained. We’re out in the hot, we’re in the cold, in the middle of the street when these buses break down, but we feel like nobody cares,” he said.

Danny Hendrix gestured to his coworkers in the audience (about 20) and said they accounted for two-thirds of the maintenance department. 

“We have 1,000 buses. We just went through state inspection. Every man here worked 12 hours a day, nine days straight. These men work overtime all the time because we’re understaffed…we cannot hire anybody because our pay is not substantial to other counties around us, our benefits are not substantial. We’re running 25-year-old buses,” he said.

Hendrix said one man worked 12-hour shifts, five days a week for a year on dispatch due to understaffing.

“A mechanic gets tired…if any of these men make one mistake, it can cost somebody’s life,” he said. “We try to protect our kids and I don’t feel like we’re getting compensated for it.”

The Courier has reached out to the district and Superintendent Chris Ragsdale for comment.