The Foothills School Division has reached a three year collective agreement with their bus drivers.

Assistant Superintendent of Corporate Services Drew Chipman says the first two years have a zero percent increase and the third year has a one percent raise.

"It is a three year deal so it goes from Sept. 1, 2016 so we are almost halfway through the deal," said Chipman. "But it reflects the reality that the province has looked to us regarding salary settlements"

'It does provide some additions dollars for bus drivers that have the buses parked at home. So we are paying for them to plug them in and making sure their electricity is compensated for that."

They are also providing an additional day of pay for the drivers to contact the parents of their students at the start of the school year.

"And we are also paying them a little bit more from a cell phone expense piece."

"We had a number of meetings with the group. We really view them as partners. I think it was pretty successful, getting that done and I think they would tell you that they are pretty happy with the way things went as well."

They were able to discuss things that are not part of the agreement, but will improve how drivers do their job.

"Things like training and making sure the drivers feel like they have all the tools in their tool box that they can react and make sure the students are safe."

"We are changing some of the professional development we do for them and we will provide them some of those pieces so they can handle different situations."