Transportation supervisor terminated from West Fargo Public Schools as dispute over bus drivers’ wages continues

WEST FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) – The former operations supervisor for the West Fargo Public Schools Transportation Dept. believes he was terminated this week because he’s speaking up on behalf of school bus drivers who want a pay increase.

“[I was] completely blindsided. There’s not one person in the entire building that saw that coming,” Kenneth Steiner said Wednesday afternoon regarding his termination.

Steiner has been the operations supervisor for the West Fargo Public Schools Transportation Dept. since May 2019.

He believes his firing is a way for the district to send a message.

“It gets a message to the school bus drivers that nobody is protected and if you want to step out of line, you can be gone as quickly as Kenneth was,” he said.

Steiner says his supervisor fired him Tuesday morning, claiming he had not completed a defensive driving certification course and a project surrounding creating a training calendar.

Steiner says he was never told there is a pressing need to complete those tasks immediately but had he been given the chance to, he would’ve had both done by the end of the week. “There was no chance for me to remedy these two issues that were addressed to me. I was just told to get out,” he said.

West Fargo Public Schools Director of Health, Safety, and Public Relations Heather Leas confirmed to KVRR on Wednesday that Steiner is no longer employed with West Fargo Public Schools but declined an interview, saying it’s a “personnel matter.”

According to a memo outlining West Fargo Public Schools’ staff salary, the starting wage for bus drivers this school year is $15.56.

“They say they know there’s a problem,” Steiner said, referring to district officials. “They’re already spending all the money they can on people. There is no more money to spend. They can’t do anything about it. That’s their position.”

The drivers say they want to be paid at a rate more comparable to other school districts in the region.

In a recent meeting with district officials, Steiner says several bus drivers asked for assurance that he would not lose his job, seeing that he’s the only one speaking up on their behalf.

“Superintendent [Beth] Slette said, ‘I have no issues with Kenneth.’ That’s essentially where the meeting ended,” Steiner recalled. “Two weeks later, my supervisor walks in and terminates my employment for reasons that I could’ve resolved by Friday. So, that’s where we’re at, and I think the taxpayers and the school district need to understand how the school district is operating at this point in time.”

Steiner says he has reached out to an attorney.

In her statement, Leas said the district is “continuing to explore creative ways to leverage the resources that we do have in support of all classified staff, including addressing staffing shortages across the district.”

The school district plans to conduct a market analysis of pay rates, which is expected to take about 12 weeks.

Click here to read KVRR’s previous coverage on this matter.