After months of negotiations, Teamster First Student bus drivers and attendants on the Kenai Peninsula cast an 88-to-5 vote Dec. 1 in favor of a strike.

"Now we're waiting to hear back from their labor manager," Rick Traini, executive director for Teamsters Local 959, said Tuesday afternoon.

For now, buses continue to travel more than 7,000 miles a day to haul 3,000 students to and from classes in the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District.

First Student has offered a Jan. 13 date to address the areas of concern -- safety, health care and the equal treatment of drivers and attendants -- but Traini is hoping for something sooner than that.

"I said, 'you know what our concerns are, let's address them and move on and get done,'" Traini said. "I'd like to get something out to the people that can pass, that addresses their concerns. Obviously what we have right now is a situation where they haven't addressed the core issues."

First Student spokesperson Nicol Jones said the next step in the process is "to figure out what the terms of the contract would look like."

The way it stands now, terms aren't to the drivers' and attendants' liking.

For six-year bus driver Grace Poindexter, improved communication is a sticking point. Currently there are areas where drivers are unable to reach the bus barn either by radio or by cell phone.

"When you're late enough they realize something's wrong or when parents say their child isn't home yet, they'll send another bus to look for you," Poindexter said.

Poindexter found herself in that situation while covering the North Fork Road.

"My drop chains didn't work at that time. There was a bus finished with his route and he came to see where I was, to see if I needed help," Poindexter said, recalling the snowy day.

Seeing Poindexter's predicament, the other driver went to an area where the bus barn could be contacted.

Pre-heat systems that allow buses to warm faster are no longer maintained, according to Cornelius Klingel, who has been driving bus since 1994. Also noted by Klingel is the replacement of studded tires with siped tires. Siping is a process of making slits across the tire's surface in order to improve traction on wet or icy conditions.

"On water and ice it's worthless. You lose steering unless the tires are chained front and back," Klingel said.

However, as Poindexter pointed out, drop chains don't always work.

Wendy Webster has been driving buses for 12 years, the last four in Homer. Among her assignments has been transporting children with special needs. For that, Webster and her attendant, Rose Marie Daly, were provided details of the youngsters' medical needs. That information is no longer given, Webster and Daly said.

"There are confidentiality issues. It's a need-to-know basis and I totally understand that, but when you're transporting a child that's prone to seizures and you're told there's no health record or the family hasn't filled out the paperwork, that's a dilemma," Webster said. "We don't have a way of knowing how to take care of a child."

Other issues include the cost of health insurance for drivers and attendants.

"Twenty-three of the 125 (members) have health care," Traini said. "That tells you what the cost is."

Because of the ongoing nature of the negotiations, Jones would not speak to the Homer News about the drivers' and attendants' specific concerns.

"That's part of the policy," Jones said.

Dave Jones, KPBSD assistant superintendent, said the district has a contractual relationship with First Student to provide bussing.

"We know they have negotiations underway a d we know that they've taken a strike vote and basically we will see what happens," Jones said.

The district has asked that if a strike is forthcoming, First Student provide sufficient notice so parents can be informed.

"We don't want to get to 7 in the morning and find out that buses aren't running and we have to know how many little children are waiting for a bus that won't come in minus-10 degree weather," Jones said.

A mid-day announcement of a strike would be communicated via radio, as outlined in the student-parent handbook.

"Also, if anything happens we have the Web site where we will be posting information," Jones said.

Pete Swanson, principal of McNeil Canyon Elementary School, said many of that school's parents could be contacted via e-mail and by using a new phone system.

"We're a small enough group that making personal contact with parents, even though it might take a bit of time, is not near what bigger schools in the district will be up against if they had to make that contact," Swanson said, adding, "There's the hope all the way around that we can avoid that kind of thing. We don't need that kind of stuff to get in the way of kids learning."

Sunni Hilts of Seldovia, KPBSD board vice president said the bus drivers had informed the board of the possible strike.

"I hope this is going to be worked out," Hilts said.

Webster has the same hope. Currently the sole source of income in her family, she said a strike would pose a financial hardship.

"It would be very, very difficult on us," Webster said.

Then there are the students.

"I worry about those little kids standing out there in the cold, so we're just hoping we don't have to go on strike," Poindexter said. "However, we're hoping to get what we're asking for."

McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at mckibbenjackinsky.@homernews.com.