SAN DIEGO -- Many local school bus drivers will be making their final drop-offs this Friday before being laid off only a week before Christmas, 10News reported.

Hundreds of bus drivers working for First Student -- a contractor for the San Diego Unified School -- will lose their jobs at the end of the school week. Last July, the bus drivers' contract was decreased.

"There's going to be mechanics, fuelers, dispatchers, safety and training office. We're all being drastically downsized," said Tammy McCarley, who has been driving kids to and from school for 19 years.

"I love my kids; they rock," said McCarley.

She doesn't know why she's losing her job and the district's own drivers get to keep theirs. McCarley said First Student drivers make an average of $10 less an hour.

"And that money could go back to the teachers and the classrooms and the programs that they're talking about cutting," said McCarley.

10News asked the school district about the cuts, and spokesman Jack Brandais said they are saving $4.5 million a year by streamlining their bus routes.

"(We are) consolidating some of the buses and the bus routes so that they make more stops," said Brandais.

While First Student drivers do make less, the district also has to pay a fee for the First Student buses.

Brandais said the school district may actually lose money if it got rid of its current bus services.

"We would save a certain amount of money, but we would also lose a certain amount of money because we get that from the state and federal government for that," said Brandais.

McCarley isn't buying that explanation. When asked if she thought the school district was making a mistake, she said, "Personally, yes, I do."

The fiscal situation for the district may get worse as it is expecting an additional $200 million budget shortfall next year.