MINOT – The School Committee, Tuesday night, raised substitute school bus drivers’ pay to $13 an hour.

School Superintendent Nina Schlikin acknowledged raising the hourly pay from $12 to $13 means that substitute drivers will make more than some of the town’s regular bus drivers, but argued the increase was necessary to keep Minot competitive.

Schlikin said that Union 29 Director of Operations Gordon Murray wants to bring Minot’s (and Mechanic Falls’) pay rate up to match the $13 per hour that Poland pays.

“Gordon reports he has trouble getting substitute drivers for Minot when they can earn more driving for Poland,” Schlikin said.

The competition for drivers isn’t just within School Union 29, as Murray noted, sometimes after training someone, helping them get their license, they go off to higher pay in Auburn.

Minot Consolidated School Principal Margaret Pitts confirmed that there have been days when students have had to wait until a driver returns from completing a regular run and times when there simply has been no bus to take students to an after-school athletic event.

Schlikin noted that some drivers, who really should have stayed home, have come in sick because they knew they had no backup.

“Our drivers are well aware of the problem,” Schlikin said.

The committee’s initial concern that the regular bus drivers might be resentful was allayed when they were reminded that substitute drivers receive no benefits and cannot be guaranteed work daily.

“In the long run, the substitutes are not getting what the regular drivers are,” said committee member Wendy Simard.

In other business, the committee approved an installment purchase agreement for the new two-classroom modular unit.

The modular was set up this summer and will be used by two sections of fourth-graders.

Assistant Superintendent Marc Gendron noted that the unit’s total $68,000 cost is about $6,000 less than estimates given at March town meeting.

The committee also accepted the resignation of Lynn Gutstein-Persky as speech and language clinician and approved hiring Heather Peters to replace her.

Pitts announced that the school will hold an open house from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Monday for residents to inspect the new modular and the renovated teachers’ lounge dedicated to the memory of Phyllis “Gram” French.

Pitts also noted that enrollment for the school year stands at 278, down about 20 students from last year.

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