The state Senate voted 44-0 Tuesday, January 23, 2018, to override Gov. Henry McMaster’s veto of $20.5 million to cover the cost of buying 210 new school buses.  That money will help the state cut the number of fire-prone 1995 and 1996 buses in operation to 349, better ensuring the safety of thousands of S.C. students who take the bus to school each day.

The new buses will be distributed across the state with each school district getting new buses by fall, said S.C. Department of Education spokesman Ryan Brown.

Feature articles that drew the most traffic on the School Bus Fleet website in 2017 included tips on buying a used school bus, an immigrant’s journey from cab driver to running a school bus company, and adding red lights to buses to deter illegal passing.

Here are details on the five most-viewed features of the year.

1.    How and When to Buy a Used School Bus
11,474 views
When it comes to purchasing a used school bus, you may already know a lot more than you think about making the right choice.

2.    From Cab Driver to CEO: An Ethiopian Immigrant’s Drive for School Bus Success
6,580 views
Tashitaa Tufaa discovered a passion for driving and a need in Minneapolis for a dedicated school bus contractor. He now employs over 400 people as the CEO of student transportation company Metropolitan Transportation Network.

 

3.    Extra Red Lights Linked to Decrease in Illegal Passing
3,898 views
Five Iowa districts that tested supplemental warning lights on school buses have seen stop-arm violations drop by at least 50%.

4.    School Bus Tracking Apps Aim to Give Parents Peace of Mind
2,402 views
Tracking apps can be a useful tool for alerting families when there has been a bus delay or route change. These apps are also designed to help students have fewer tardy days and absences.

5.    10 Phenomenal Women in School Transportation
1,841 views
School Bus Fleet found out more about some of the women across the U.S. who are crucial to making school buses run safely and on time.

Throughout time, poets have drawn inspiration from a myriad of sources, from nature to love. George Horne took his inspiration from a school bus!

Horne, a pupil transportation consultant who began his career as an English teacher, has published his own collection of poems about the yellow bus world and the people in it. He even penned a series of limericks about the Southeastern Pupil Transportation Conference.

Horne’s creative works have touched on both the comical and the serious sides of school transportation. In his work Black and Yellow is Our World, originally printed in 2012, he covers such topics as the important work of the school bus driver, the educational robot Buster the School Bus, federal motor vehicle safety standards, and a school bus unloading fatality. He even wrote a poem about transporting students with disabilities. Here are a couple of verses from the poem:

The Special Point of View

By George Horne

It’s start-up time on Number 2.

I take my seat and pray,

“Lord help us meet each challenge

That confronts us on this day.”

My driver, Gus … perhaps the best …

A gentle man, but firm.

The kids all like his curly hair

And tease about his “perm.” . . . . .

Our students all are such a joy.

Each has a different place

In mine and in the heart of Gus.

They know! It’s in each face.

St. Mary Help Of Christians Catholic School in Aiken, SC, has a new bus.  It is the traditional yellow, but students affectionately have nicknamed it the “Green Bus”.  Catherine Green, St. Mary’s office manager, and her children, Michele and Jason, gave the bus to the school as a gift.  Their gift has become a lesson in giving  –  and receiving.

Green and her children originally wanted the gift to be anonymous, but decided that it was important for the students to know the bus was a gift and who gave it.  In 25 years of being the school’s secretary, Mrs. Greene has cared for, healed, protected and disciplined them.  She approached her husband a couple of years ago about buying a bus for the school that did not have the funds in their budget to purchase one.  It just never happened – at that time.

After her husband passed away in March of 2017, Mrs. Green and her children decided to use some of his life insurance funds to purchase the bus for the school.  This past fall, Green learned of an upstate, family-owned business in Chesnee that sells used buses.  After her first choice fell through John Dunbar, the school’s regular bus driver, drove to Carolina Bus Sales, Inc., to check out her second choice.  Green and Dunbar picked up the new-to-St. Mary’s bus, a 2005 model, in November.

Green said the school was long overdue for a new bus and there was not enough duct tape in the world to hold together the 1984 bus that the school was formerly using.  She stated that her family’s gift is a way to give back to a school that has given them so much and that it feels great to give and to teach that what you do for others, you’re doing for Jesus Christ.

A school bus adorned with Christmas lights, reindeer antlers and other decorations took home a top honor in a local Christmas parade last week.

Humble Independent School District (ISD) bus driver Nicole Pennetta came up with the idea to enter a yellow bus in the parade, and she organized efforts to decorate the bus. Another Humble ISD driver, Karen Ferris, dressed as Mrs. Claus and drove the bus in the parade.

For the Dec. 2 event, Humble ISD assembled more than 50 drivers, attendants, other staff members and kids to ride in and walk with the bus down Humble’s Main Street.

The festive school bus was apparently also popular with the parade’s judges: The Humble ISD transportation team won the motor vehicle float category.  Trophies will be presented at the Humble City Council meeting on Jan. 8.

Humble ISD, based about 20 miles north of Houston, transports approximately 11,000 students to and from 43 schools with a fleet of about 267 buses. The district’s buses cover more than 1.7 million miles per year.

Carolina Bus Sales, Inc. wishes a Merry Christmas to each and every one of you!!!

Hundreds of Southern California schools are shut down as a result of at least a half-dozen raging wildfires, stretching from Santa Barbara County to San Diego County.  It’s the second time in two months that fires have disrupted the school year in the state.

More than 200,000 students have been affected by school closures in about two dozen districts, the largest being the Los Angeles Unified School District, which closed at least 265 schools.  The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), the Getty Museum, and the exclusive neighborhood of Bel-Aire are also being threatened.  Using vehicles to evacuate patients from medical facilities, vans and school buses are lining up to remove patients as workers in masks pushed frail residents in wheelchairs across parking lots and roads.

At least 899 structures have been destroyed, including 701 single-family homes.  Eighteen thousand are still in the path of the fires and are being threatened.

Please keep these areas in your thoughts and prayers.

We have posted blogs about how school bus drivers go above and beyond their duties of getting students to and from school and school activities.  This is another story about how drivers are serving their community and those in need.

Omaha school bus drivers prep for their big Christmas party as they continue efforts in wrapping gifts and spreading the holiday cheer for their adopted children from Restored Hope, according to WOWT.

Bus driver Charlene Dunn who works for contractor Student Transportation of America detailed that she and other staff will hold their annual bake sale to raise money for additional gifts for the children and their big Christmas party on Dec. 16.

Dunn and fellow team members will bus the children into their south base for their event. She also indicated that her 18 students have received gifts, and possibly more.

Another way school bus drivers are giving back!

The National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation is urging school districts nationwide to only transport students in school buses rather than in vans that do not conform to federal standards for school bus safety.

NASDPTS issued the position on December 5th is response to an increasing number of questions asked by local schools on the legality and cost of the issue.  In 2005, Congress attempted to close a loophole by prohibiting dealerships from selling or leasing to schools newly manufactured 11- to 15- passenger vans, including the driver, that are not built to federal standards for school buses or multifunction school activity buses.

Still, school districts and especially private and charter schools are using the vehicles, which NASDPTS called “a significant issue.”  One of the biggest issues is the cost to replace the vans with school buses that adhere to standards for safety.  The paper by NASDPTS concludes that schools opting for what they consider to be less expensive non-conforming vans are doing so at risk of putting themselves in legal jeopardy.  States have different laws as what kind of vehicle they can use, what form of signage they can use, and what they can use the vehicle for.

Before you purchase a vehicle for a school, check with your state and local laws.

Have a safe and Happy New Year  !!!

Even as a growing number of student transporters view local ride share services as competition, one of the largest  school bus contractors is taking the approach that if you can’t beat them, join them, and in the process potentially taking it nationwide.

That’s the vision of Student Transportation, Inc. in announcing a “highly strategic” move.  The company’s Managed Services Group (MSG) made a minority investment in HopSkipDrive, which was started several years ago in California, by three mothers as a family-and school-friendly alternative to the Lyft and Uber.

The group’s vision is to increase the number of students who need rides to and from school or related events, but for whom the school bus is not an option.

In addition to individual rides, HopSkipDrive offers group transportation for sports teams and field trips, carpooling to schools with daily predetermined routes.   The company monitors all rides and drivers (who are put through a 15 -point certification training process) allowing parents to do the same via an app that also allows trip requests.

Thomas Built Buses has unveiled a video tribute to school bus drivers that features another kind of driver – NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt, Jr.  The Thomas Built video highlights school bus driver’s integral part in education.

In the video, Earnhardt surprises drivers at Cabarrus (NC) County Schools, thanking them and other school bus drivers for the service they provide for students. “Bus drives are critical. For a lot of kids, riding a school bus is the only way that they can get to school,” Earnhardt said. “Every day there are thousands and thousands of bus drivers on the road who are very serious about having a positive impact on kid’s lives. I am proud to partner with Thomas Built Buses to thank school bus drivers for their role in getting kids to school safely and everything they do.”

Earnhardt is from Kannapolis, NC,  in Cabarrus County. He retired from racing at the Cup level this past weekend in the last race of the 2017 season at Homestead Raceway in Florida.