North Carolina District to Teachers: Learn How to Drive Yellow

Need more evidence of the strain being put on school budgets? Look no further than a disturbing news item that ran last month in the Daily Herald of Roanoke, N.C.

The district eliminated at least 12 school bus driver positions due to budget constraints and will fill those vacancies with assistant teachers who are already on staff. The teachers were set to receive school bus driver training this summer.

By all accounts, Roanoke Rapids Grading School District is much accomplished and innovative. The school's Web site says that it was the first public school district in the state to offer 12 grades and the first to offer Kindergarten. It's won state and national awards for student achievement and boasts the largest number of National Board Certified teachers of any school district in North Carolina, which by the way can mean a 12 percent pay increase. During the upcoming 2009-2010 school year, it would seem that some of those teachers will be working even harder for their wages after the school board voted to eliminate school bus driver positions.

Doug Miller, RRGSD maintenance director, said the school planned to use money from the state for transportation costs to supplement the teachers' incomes.

“What we’re trying to do is provide enough work for teacher assistants. The state is cutting their funding," Miller told the Daily Herald. "We’re trying to keep them around because of the work they do. It’s because of them that we’ve had such good test scores.”

Here's hoping that the district's student safety statistics don't suffer as a result.

Honoring the Drivers and Philosophy

As we spring on towards summer and the end of another school year, consider how you honor your school bus drivers.

In North Carolina, Cleveland County Schools named Rita Maddox its driver of the month and scored a nice story in the local press. Said Maddox "I like driving a bus because I know that a nice smile and a hug every morning may be the only hugs some children get ... I work at the best school in Cleveland County with the greatest staff- not to mention the students."

Meanwhile, the retirement of a 40-year veteran behind the wheel, gets a story in a regional Arkansas paper. Wanda Pingry offered the paper (and other drivers) this wisdom:
"Kids aren't perfect and I don't expect them to be ... But I do expect them not to be mean and hateful and to keep their voice down."

What do you do for your drivers? How do you recognize long time drivers and school employees?

On another philosophical note, Bus No. 6 offers its own pearl from behind the wheel:

"... just the other day I realized that after a person has driven a bus for more than five years, that person starts to look and act just like their bus ... The gentleman who drives Bus No. 54 talks a big game but that's what it always is -- just talk. His bus has a great heater, but all the heat stays up front ... I drive Bus No. 6. It rattles a lot, makes a lot of noise, but it's nothing really worth listening to. Need I say more?"

Any truth to it? Are you like your bus?

Monday Morning Roundup

• In North Carolina, a student's death prompted legislators to introduce a bill allowing stop arm cameras.
• In Indiana, a school bus driver has been charged with felony neglect for not stopping teenage students from terrorizing a female rider. The driver denied knowledge of the abuses.
• A school bus monitor is the latest New York lotto millionaire. The first person to see her winning ticket? Her bus driver.
• An educator's association is standing up for a school bus driver who struck several parked cars. They say she takes responsibility for the crashes but was a "victim" of the side-effects of the prescription sleep drug she was taking.

What is it to be a school bus driver? Thanks to the Short Bus Chronicles, we found this great video slide show on all the roles school bus drivers fulfill besides driving the bus.