I have been in education since 1994. I am old enough to remember when there was an opening for a teacher position and a school district would have hundreds of applicants. Teaching candidates would interview several times before being hired. Some folks would take a job as a teacher’s aide to get the inside track to a potential teaching job the following year. There were by far more candidates than jobs. That is no longer the case. There is a teacher shortage.
There is also a school bus driver shortage. Every district in Madison County is experiencing a dire need for bus drivers. Some districts run their own busses while others contract out with professional companies. All are experiencing difficulty in finding people to drive busses.
Bus drivers, like teachers, must have a large amount of patience. I remember two bus drivers that I had as a student many years ago. The first one was Alice and the second one was Nancy. Alice had more patience than Nancy, but both were good at their job. I learned valuable lessons from both.
Living in the rural part of the county, I started riding the school bus at the age of four. We had half-day kindergarten back then. We were picked up later in the morning and rode together as a group of young first-year students. There were maybe 12 kids on the bus at the most. Riding the bus to kindergarten, my classmates and I would sing songs, eagerly waiting to arrive at the school in Moro. We would jump off the bus upon arrival and run to Miss. Butler’s classroom. We would line up at the end of the day and walk to the bus, ready to go home.
The bus ride home was much different. The older kids were on the bus. It was loud and disorderly. Kids would argue about matters that they deemed important, such as which tractor brand was better, John Deere, International or Allis Chalmers. Some days the argument was about trucks, Ford, Chevy or Dodge. Cuss words were used fluently and frequently. Windows were lowered to the officially marked black line to help cool the bus on hot days. Many “real world” lessons were learned on the bus ride home.
Once in awhile, the occasional “slap fight” would break out. This would always lead to a scolding from Alice. If the horseplay did not cease, the bus would be pulled over to the side of the road and a silence would soon engulf the yellow vehicle. The students who were having the disagreement would quickly notice the silence and the halt of the bus. They would then both face front and tell the driver that they “were just playing around”, hoping that this would get the bus rolling again and they would avoid any further punishment. Alice was patient and rarely reported anything to her supervisors or the school administrators.
Nancy was more strict than Alice. She was not one to pull the bus over very often. She would ask students to stop behaving poorly as she looked up from the road into the slightly angled, long oval mirror above her head. She could see what was going on and expected it to stop if it was not appropriate school bus behavior. If it did not stop, she would have a piece of paper waiting in her hand the next day to give to the students who had misbehaved the day before. This piece of paper was a bus referral and it meant that the student would have to stop by the office and discuss the previous infraction with a school administrator. Some would not be allowed to ride the bus for a few days, while others were back the next day with a warning.
Nancy was in charge and consistent. Every Friday, as she was dropping us off at school, she would sayx, “Have a great day. It’s Friday!” Most days, while loading the bus for the ride home from school, one or more of the riders would grow impatient and yell, “Let’s roll, Nance.” Nancy would smile and start the engine and proceed to drive north to our homes.
I hope that this article will serve to show my appreciation for the bus drivers that played a huge role in getting me and my classmates to and from school every day and show other folks how important it is to have good bus drivers transporting our students to and from school each day. Teachers, secretaries, counselors, custodians and administrators all play a vital role in educating our students. Bus drivers, however, are the interlocking piece that links home and school. Many times the start of a school day is pushed in a positive direction by a pleasant greeting as the student steps up onto the bus.
If you, or someone you know, are looking for a career that will have a lifelong impact on the future of our society in a very meaningful way, please consider becoming a school bus driver. The need is currently critical. There are financial incentives for new bus drivers. Training will be provided. Please contact your local school district office or the Madison County Regional Office of Education to find out more about the opportunities to become a school bus driver. By the way, the school buses are air-conditioned now, so there should be no need to monitor the official black line on the window violation.
Robert W. Werden is the Madison County Regional Superintendent of Schools. He is in his 26th year as an educator. He is a former Director of the Madison County Career and Technical Education System. He can be reached at www.roe41.org
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