No CDL required for 925 bus, training provided

The last time the Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District changed its bus routes was over a decade ago, when it had 25 drivers.

Now, it’s down to about 10, including the mechanics, who drive part-time.

Matt Dalton, the district’s executive director of facilities and maintenance, said COCSD has lost five drivers in the last year alone, and is looking to hire “as many as we can get.”

The position opened up on cocsd.com on March 5, offering $19.35 to $20.25 per hour for Commercial Driver Licensed drivers and $17.35 to $18.25 for non-CDL drivers.

The “925 buses” are the shorter, yellow Type A buses that carry 10 to 15 passengers, which does not require a CDL.

“It requires everything that a CDL license does, except taking the test,” Dalton said. “It requires all the drug testing, the [Department of Public Safety] physical, the buses have to be DPS-certified [and] inspected.”

The training generally costs about $3,000, which is covered by the district. The only thing not covered is registration, which costs about $35, Dalton said.

Additionally, to combat the fewer number of drivers, the district is consolidating many routes to lower the load on the current drivers. The consolidated routes began Monday, March 9.

“We were hoping to wait until after Spring Break to do this, but with the unexpected loss of one of our [Special Education] drivers for the foreseeable future, we needed to make some changes earlier,” Dalton said.

Much of the consolidation involves simply shortening many of the longer routes, like the pickups along State Route 260 toward Camp Verde for open enrollment students, or lowering the number of stops in a loop.

Route changes was communicated with parents via email and phone calls, he said.

Sex Education

The Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District is in the 60-day review process of updating its opt-in middle school sex education curriculum, titled “Promoting Health Among Teens [Abstinence Only].”

“Module One is titled ‘Getting to know you and steps to making your dreams come true,’” COCSD Governing Board member Jak Teel said during a work session on March 4. “Given the topic, give us an idea of what that is, when we’re talking about middle school.”

Laurel Abdelnour, the sexual health coordinator for Yavapai County Community Health Services, said it is mainly about setting goals, which she said helps students avoid being “caught up in an unplanned pregnancy or into using drugs.”

The district previously used the “Making a Difference” model, but it was discontinued by the Arizona Department of Health Services.

The new model is scheduled for board adoption during its meeting Wednesday, May 6. Feedback to the school district is accepted through Sunday, April 12.

While Arizona state law doesn’t require exclusively abstinence-only curricula, it does require emphasis on it.

The main updates include changes in language, examples and updated statistics. The publisher, teaching methods and content are overall the same.

There is an additional opt-in contraceptive class option, which was also approved the last time the sex education curriculum was approved in COCSD, but was not implemented.

“I don’t think we’ve ever had a kid that was opted into the full program but was not opted into the birth control class,” Abdelnour said. “So parents overwhelmingly seem to support that.”

Writing Revolution

Underserved public schools have the opportunity to apply for the Arizona Department of Education’s Writing Revolution grant, meant to advance writing education in the district. The $30,000 grant is for educators, and COCSD was awarded it for instruction in grades six through eight.

“COCSD, MUHSD and Beaver Creek will all participate in the Writing Revolution,” COCSD Superintendent Jessica Vocca said. “I believe it also has classroom coaching components.”

“It’s based on research in the science of reading,” Vocca said.

The kickoff event for the Writing Revolution will be Wednesday, May 13, at 2 p.m. at the COCSD district office.

Enrollment Down

Cottonwood-Oak Creek School District has had about a 9.5% enrollment education over the last five years.
“Our decline from ‘25 to ‘26 was the largest drop of 94.2 students,” COCSD Chief Financial Officer Tammy Janssen said.
Projected numbers for next school year:

• 1,505 daily average membership of students
• 2% increase from state funding for cost of living adjustments on current ADM projections
• 1.5% raise for teachers

“We can’t take the [Average Daily Membership] we have right now and do a 2% [raise],” Janssen said. “That’s not going to work. With the 50 students down
that we’re projecting for next year, we can easily say 1.5%. It’s conservative and keeps us having money in our reserves.”