Current Wake County Public School System employees will have a chance to earn extra money as bus drivers or bus monitors under a plan approved by the school board Wednesday night.

The change, approved without opposition, provides employees with a path to take on new work while the district struggles with worsening bus driver shortages and concerns about student behavior on those buses. The district identified 48 routes involving 19 schools in which it wants to hire a bus monitor to handle behavioral issues.

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The district, as of Wednesday, is short 274 drivers, out of 882 total positions — nearly a third all bus drivers. It’s a number that keeps growing, as the district has made gradual improvements in other higher-shortage areas with wage increases. It was short 50 bus monitors, out of 180 monitors.

The ”creative” change is an “incredibly important first step,” said Kristin Beller, the most recent past president of the North Carolina Association of Educators’ Wake County chapter.

She hopes employees who work second jobs will choose to make driving a bus or monitoring a bus their second job, knowing it can now provide good pay and benefits.

“I also hope that the district continues to problem-solve beyond this stopgap,” Beller said.

The change allows employees who want to monitor buses to earn $16 per hour, starting on the “bus safety assistant” pay scale. It also permits employees who obtain a Commercial Driver’s License to earn bus driver pay — starting at $17.20 per hour — for taking on routes at or near the schools at which they work.

Employees did not previously have the ability to be paid as drivers or monitors, spokeswoman Lisa Luten said.

No employees currently serve as monitors on top of existing responsibilities, Luten said, and the district does not know how many employees already have a Commercial Driver’s License.

School board members favored the proposal but expressed skepticism both about whether the changes were enough or could perpetuate the district’s existing disparities in discipline by race or by special education status.

Superintendent Catty Moore said the district wanted to start with finding 50 routes withs he greatest needs for monitors, rather than looking for a monitor for any and all routes.

“It’s not strategic and the funding’s not there,” Moore said, adding that she does want a monitor or “safety assistant” on every bus.

“This is really the classic, ‘How do you eat an elephant one bite at a time?’” Moore said.

Board Member Roxie Cash said she was concerned about the stressful environment some bus drivers, and eventually monitors, may face.

“What will we do to support the people on the bus?” Cash asked.

Bob Snidemiller, the district’s senior director for transportation, said students are disciplined for their behavior on school buses, with progressive action taken as a student is disciplined more times.

During the board’s public comment period, three bus drivers urged the board to approve the change.

Frankie Dixon Sr., an Enloe High School bus driver, said he was concerned about safety as student behavior disrupts driver concentration. He cited on incident on his bus after school, in which he turned the bus back to the school after he said students were being too rowdy. Once he went back on the road, students began stomping and pounding on windows, he said.

“Once I pulled back on the road, one of the children decided to throw a large glue stick at me,” Dixon said. “It missed my head, flew into the window and cracked it.”

Then, another glue stick flew at the back of his head.

Another bus driver said they were hit in the back of the head with a frozen popsicle while driving on Interstate 440.

Cindy Hicks, a 12-year driver in the school system, said bus monitors could improve student behavior and improve poor bus driver retention.