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?

Drivers Get No Raise; "I think we're all in this recession together"

From our Nation's Press: Totman Enterprises, the contractor that serves schools in Marshfield, Mass., turned down pay raises for its 25 employees in order to reduce its contract price by $100,000 and avoid instituting a transportation fee. Martha Totman, the owner of the company told WickedLocal.com:

"I think we’re all in this recession together, and in order to get out of it, we have to get out of it together ... My drivers are terrific people and most live in Marshfield, and this affects us all. With the lack of stability in our school system, it’s hard when you don’t know whether you’re going to have a job or programs cut. And we hoped we could make it a little easier"

What's going on where you live? Are you getting COLA increases? Raises? Pink slips?

Troopers Impressed by Seating Chart After Crash

Missouri state troopers were impressed by what they found after a non-fatal school bus crash last week: a seating chart that put each kid to a seat. Sgt. Dale Moreland with the Missouri State Highway Patrol said he thinks it's a good idea for every school to do this.

"Normally I think a practice as that they're seated kind of the way they're picked up and children have their choices, but for safety reasons it would make sense to seat them together ... Smaller children together, large children together. That would help prevent injuries in a crash."

What does your operation do? Are there reasons not to do this? Are there better ways?

Also online and worth reading:

• How school bus driver made it into Parade Magazine's annual salary survey. Also, how driver's salary stacks up against well-paid pet sitter.
  
• Maine looks at law that would require bicycles to stop for school buses. Legislators noted that cyclists had nearly run down some young children exiting their buses. Have you seen this? Does your town/state have a policy or law for bicycles?
  

Is the Hands-Free-Only Law Reducing Hands-Free Use

Food for thought. Tom Vanderbilt at How We Drive brings up an interesting phenomenon. Since California has passed a ban on the use of hand-held phones while driving, use of both hands-held and hands-free phones has declined. A colleague hypothesizes two things are happening:

One, the publicity about the law has raised awareness in general about the risks of talking on a phone — hand-held or not — while driving (and this trend shall pass); or two, that people have not fully understood the law, and may be confusing one form of phone with the other (I admit to sometimes taking a moment to comprehend what the ungainly term ‘hand-free phone’ actually signifies). A third possible idea is that people may somehow feel police will be looking more carefully at all drivers on a phone, regardless of whether it’s legal or not. Or perhaps there’s some other unknown factor at work. Or perhaps the sample size is simply not large enough; perhaps more people than ever are driving and talking.

This should give us an opportunity to look at our own attitudes towards onboard devices, regulation and safe driving behavior.

"It's not the way to handle things"

The father of a four-year-old special needs student who was allegedly molested by a school bus aide is irate. The aide has been arrested, but Josue Melgar said the district shouldn't have taken nearly two weeks to tell him about the incident. He told CBS4:

"They give me excuses saying, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry' saying, 'We told this person to call you.' It's not the way to handle things."

"... I don't know for how these people (the school district) could do this without sending the girl back home and acting like nothing has happened ... That's not the way to do this. I just feel devastated when I think about that. I can't sleep just thinking about that."

The district said it launched an investigation immediately after the bus driver said she saw the aide touching the student and removed the aide and reassigned him to a job away from students. But the district could not say why the Melgars were not notified immediately.

Read the whole story online. Let us know what you think. How do you think the district handled this incident? What procedures for investigation and notification of parents are in place in your school if this should happen?

"Spare the Ride and Spoil the Child"

Last year, Krista Ramsey over at the Cincinnati Enquirer discovered something the school transportation industry has been talking about for a while: the school bus is good for kids, good for schools, good for the environment; and not enough high school kids ride it. As part of her Earth Day investigation, she estimated that if 500 teen drivers rode the bus two days a week instead of driving they'd save $37,152 and 10,800 gallons of gas. In an update, she encourages parents of younger kids to put their kids on the bus.

But there's a more subtle reason for encouraging parents to help their kids learn the bus-riding habit. That's to move this somewhat sheltered generation out of the hothouse.

Our kids are in for tough economic times ahead, and probably years of them. Sacrifice is not only something we haven't wanted for them, but something we haven't trained them for, which may explain why they see cable as a birthright and their own car as a necessity.

Headlines: Savings, Double Deckers, "Moon Shine"

• A Florida district is set to save $11 million by changing how it runs its buses.
• A school in Ontario looks to red, London-style double decker buses to solve budget woes.
• A Pennsylvania man was accused of mooning a school bus driver.
• Bus aide hailed as hero after she pulled a woman from a house fire.