What The Heck Is An Extraboard?
by Irving & Seymore Grabinski
An Extraboard is another name for a substitute driver. Though according to the driver's union we are not 'subs'. The same term is used in Railroads for their substitute engineers and brake operators. San Diego Transit also uses this term.
As far as we can figure, and this is purely conjecture, the Railroads had a chalk board on the wall in the dispatcher's office with the names of the "extra" engineers and brake operators. When they needed a replacement, they checked the "Extra Board". Someone must of said to the replacement, "Are you the Extra Board?" and there ya go.
We found a web site about jobs in the railroad industry, http://ny.jobsearch.org/youth/occ26.htm and here is an excerpt.
'As railroads need new engineers and brake operators, newly trained workers who have the most seniority are placed on the extra board.
Extra board engineers and brake operators work only when the
railroad needs substitutes for regular workers who are absent
because of vacation, illness, or other personal reasons. Extra
board engineers and brake operators frequently must wait years until
they accumulate enough seniority to get a regular assignment.'
The San Diego Unified School District has Extraboard Bus Drivers who are the "jack of all trades" and do 'other duties as assigned'. Besides the obvious job of covering regular driver's routes, an Extraboard must be able to cover any assignment. Covering for Dispatchers (we have them too), checking for late drivers, pulling copies of routes, answering the two-way radio, and assisting new drivers. This is just in the office! An Extraboard is also responsible for teaching the students in our district about bus safety. This is a formal presentation of 30 minutes at all of the elementary school sites and a shorter version for all secondary school students who ride a school bus.
One of the favorite jobs for an Extraboard is sixth grade camp. This is an OCILE (Off Campus Integrated Learning Experience) Program. We drive up to Mt. Palomar with the sixth graders (and their luggage) on Monday, go back and get them on Friday and at times it is a great drive (especially when the bus is empty).
The differences between Extraboard and School Bus Driver may seem small, but the increased knowledge and responsibility we have to maintain is very important. An Extraboard must have at least one year or more experience driving with SDUSD. This is but one reason why our Extraboards make two and one half percent (WOW!!) more than regular School Bus Drivers. In most other (but not all) district's substitute drivers are usually the newest and least experienced unassigned drivers and they often make less than the regular drivers. In the SDUSD Extraboard drivers are guaranteed a minimum of seven hours of work a day, usually a split shift for example:
5:45 am-8:45 am 1:30 pm-5:30 pm or
1:00 pm-4:00 pm 4:30 pm-8:30 pm or
5:15 am-9:15 am 11:00 am-2:00 pm
Or anything in between. The schedules are made up so that an Extraboard driver is always available to cover any route at any time and we run routes all hours of the day.
Any out of town trips like Magic Mountain, Knott's Berry Farm, Disneyland, Tijuana (yes Tijuana, Mexico),etc. scheduled during the weekday or weekend, are assigned to Extraboards. Magic Mountain is easily a three hour drive one way from San Diego depending on the traffic in Los Angeles.
An Extraboard's life is never boring.
How can it be when you don't know what you will be doing tomorrow?
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