Long Island’s Will Smith Named State School Bus Driver of the Year

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Long Island’s Will Smith Named State School Bus Driver of the Year

Posted on by Andres Caamano
Will Smith received his award for School Bus Driver of the Year at the New York Association for Pupil Transportation conference in July. Credit: Newsday

By Kevin J. Redding

Newsday

After guarding inmates for 20 years, retired correction officer Will Smith was just looking for an easier job. And weekends off.

But Smith, who started driving school buses in 2006 and has been transporting students to and from Sewanhaka Central High School District for a decade, found more than a new job: He found his passion.

“If it was my child on that bus, how would I want my child treated? That’s the mindset I have,” said Smith, 57, a father of five who lives in Inwood. “My goal is to treat everybody fairly and give as much positive influence as I possibly can. I love it.”

His impact has not gone unnoticed: In July, Smith was named School Bus Driver of the Year by the New York Association for Pupil Transportation, chosen out of 55,000 nominees statewide.

“I’m very proud — I could never speak highly enough of Will,” said Chad Schroeter, Smith’s training supervisor. “He was so choked up at the ceremony he couldn’t say the speech he wanted to. It was an emotional experience for him.”

He added, “People think you’re just picking kids up and bringing them to school and home. . . . [But] you’re a leader, you’re a role model, you’re a doctor at times, you’re a parent at times. You carry many, many hats as a school bus driver.”

Staying Out of Trouble

Growing up in public housing in Far Rockaway, Smith said, he saw friends fall in with the wrong crowd and go down destructive paths of drug dealing and robbery. Motivated by not wanting to disappoint his family, especially his mother, he refused to follow them.

“I just knew a car ride with friends could change my life forever in the worst way, so I’d say, ‘I’ll see you when you get back,’ ” Smith said. “I didn’t let it affect me.”

Smith said he was involved in the Boy Scouts, the Cadets, which are similar to the Scouts, and karate, and would frequently venture outside of the neighborhood with his mother — to Long Island, Westchester or down to North Carolina to see his grandparents, where he interacted with horses, pigs and chickens and earned money picking cucumbers.

“I got a little taste of the country life,” said Smith, who ultimately completed high school in Virginia to further distance himself from trouble back home.

Smith said he worked part-time in a group home for youth with truancy issues and violent tendencies before launching his career as a guard at Morrison Correctional Institution in North Carolina (now known as Richmond Correctional Institution). There, he said, he was faced with threats and high-risk situations: “The reality is, you could possibly not come home.”

After retiring in 2006, Smith moved back to New York to be closer to his mother. He started working for Plainview-based WE Transport, which serves Sewanhaka district schools in Elmont, Floral Park, Franklin Square and New Hyde Park.

Each morning, he wakes up early and leaves by 5 a.m. to commute to the bus yard in Elmont, where he checks his day’s vehicle top to bottom and ensures it’s in running condition. He leaves the yard at 6:45 a.m. to drive his morning bus route, which is made up of 12 stops. He’s back in the yard by 8:20 a.m.

Then, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Smith said, he’s training drivers — either those completely new to the field, those who need a brush-up on buses they haven’t been in for a while, or drivers who have had incidents on the job and require retraining.

After training, Smith does some paperwork, completes his afternoon route and, unless he’s driving a charter for extracurricular sports — which can last until 9 p.m. — he commutes back home to Inwood. Then he “gets up in the morning and does the same thing all over again.”

Though his days are long, Smith always tries to welcome students aboard his bus with a “Good morning!” or “Good afternoon!” and makes sure to ask them how their days were.

Chigozirim Ifebi, a 2023 graduate of Elmont Memorial High School, rode Smith’s bus.

“It’s easy to take for granted the services of those who contribute to our everyday routines. . . . His daily greetings, punctual arrivals and rare absences majorly contributed to my success throughout the school year,” she said.

Said Thomas Dolan, Sewanhaka’s interim superintendent, “We are fortunate to have a pleasant and compassionate individual like Mr. Smith greeting our students every morning. That sets a wonderful tone.”

Training New Drivers

As a trainer of new bus drivers, Smith helps them through the rigorous process of obtaining a commercial driver’s license.

“Training has to be intense,” Smith said. “We’re not driving around Coca-Cola. A dropped case of soda can be replaced.”

Becoming a school bus driver has only gotten more difficult over the years, he said. The expectations are high, Smith said, as drivers must “go through a lot of red tape” to land a position. They are required to undergo extensive academic and technical training and stay up-to-date on that training, as well as pass drug and alcohol tests, background checks and annual physicals, he said.

Since he began as a trainer in 2010, Smith said he has taught “at least 1,000, probably more” bus drivers. “

He pretty much has a 100% passing rate for all new applicants that come in,” said Susan Soudant-Dello Ioio, WE Transport’s director of safety and training.

“Will’s got a strong work ethic, he’s a team player and is very knowledgeable in the school bus industry,” she said. “He’s the voice on the ground. You can trust his judgment on training protocols and potential new drivers.”

Steven Rodriguez knows Smith’s dedication firsthand, having been trained by him in 2019.

“Will was and still is very hard on his trainees, but that’s only because he actually cares,” said Rodriguez, who is now a senior training manager at WE Transport. “He’d always say, ‘Come on, man!’ He’s got that Queens attitude: ‘Let’s go man, come on man, you got this.’ He wants everybody to pass, and he understands we sometimes get in our own head.”

Rodriguez said while parallel parking with a bus was daunting at first, Smith taught him techniques that helped him pass the test. A mapping class is crucial for drivers to be able to navigate their routes without electronics; drivers caught with a cellphone while behind the wheel must pay a $2,750 fine for the first offense. Rodriguez said he also learned from Smith how to accommodate special needs children, who require equipment like wheelchairs and car seats, as well as compassion and empathy.

“He wants to be helping others and helping new people. He’s had an impact on every one of us,” said Rodriguez.

Yolanda Howard was a bus attendant for nine months when her driver, Smith, encouraged her to pursue a commercial driver’s license. After helping her pass her test and become a driver, she said, he sought out open trainer positions and put in a good word for her.

“He sees something in you that you don’t see in yourself, and it makes you believe in yourself,” said Howard, now a bus driver and trainer at WE Transport.

More than just technical skills, Howard said, Smith passed down his heartful approach to the job. “You have to look at them as if they’re your own kids,” she said. “You’re the first, second, third person they see in the morning sometimes, and a friendly greeting of ‘Good morning! How’s your day?’ can take someone through their day.”

Katherine Simmons, who trained with Smith in 2022, said he handwrote a driving manual that aligned with how he trained each individual and simplified the complicated, and at times confusing, official commercial driver’s license booklet. This proved especially useful for learning the interior engine compartment of the bus, she said.

“That really helped me toward my test, and I will never forget that,” Simmons said. “He believes in everybody.”

She said she was equally amazed by Smith’s patience when it came to teaching a large number of trainees who were not proficient in English. Through visuals and the help of native language speakers, Smith made training comfortable and accessible for all, she said.

“It’s rewarding when you see them gaining confidence,” Smith said, “and you run into them a few months later and they’re handling the bus with pride.”

A ‘Celebrity’

For all these reasons, plus working steadily and helping “significantly” during the COVID-19 pandemic, Soudant-Dello Ioio said she nominated Smith for the School Bus Driver of the Year award, making him the first WE Transport driver to be in the running.

He traveled to upstate Saratoga Springs with one of his sons to accept the accolade on July 11.

“Willie demonstrates all the best qualities of a school bus driver in New York State — from ensuring the maximum safety of all his students each day, to the tireless dedication he exhibits throughout his training and mentoring of hundreds of other drivers. Willie leads by example and represents the true pinnacle of his profession,” said the New York Association for Pupil Transportation’s executive director, David Christopher.

Reflecting on the award, Smith said, “It feels great to be acknowledged for what you did. I felt really special. Because you’re not doing it to be recognized, you’re doing it because it’s your job and it’s the right thing to do. I’m very serious about what I do. But I’m sure there are thousands of drivers that do the same thing. If I won, we all won.”

With a laugh, he said that his co-workers around the bus yard have taken to calling him a “celebrity” and he’s had a parent congratulate him while dropping off a student.

Sitting on a bench at Zion Park in Lawrence last month, Smith looked back on his life and career, musing at how far he’s come from his childhood in Far Rockaway. Looking out at a group of children on a playground, he became emotional.

“The kids, they’re innocent,” he said. “I mean, it could be a doctor on that swing right there, it could be an astronaut. We don’t know what these kids are going to turn out to be, so you’ve got to give them all a fair chance. Everybody deserves that.”

Newsday article

Nuvve’s Largest DC Fast Charger Order To Power New England School Bus Fleet

Posted on by Andres Caamano

Beacon Mobility subsidiary NRT Bus will use 25 Nuvve DC Rapid HD Charging Stations for new electric school buses in Lawrence, Mass.

SAN DIEGO, July 13, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Nuvve Holding Corp., a global leader in vehicle-to-grid technology and deployments, will supply NRT Bus, a member of the Beacon Mobility family of companies, with 25 bi-directional Nuvve DC Rapid HD Charging Stations for Lawrence Public Schools in Lawrence, Mass.

Designed specifically for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) operations, the Nuvve chargers will power a fleet of 25 new electric school buses manufactured by Thomas Built Buses and secured under the largest Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Clean School Bus Grant awarded in Massachusetts last year. New England Transit Sales and strategic partner Beacon Mobility helped NRT Bus secure funding during the first round of EPA grants. The Nuvve K-12 division will support the deployment from site planning at the district’s transportation yard through utility interconnection and commissioning. The charger order was disclosed earlier in the second quarter of 2023, with the units expected to be delivered by December while the buses arrive later in 2024.

“Leaders like Beacon Mobility and other electric school bus operators across the Northeast are embracing V2G to reduce the cost of operation, and we’re honored to help make their switch to cleaner, quieter and healthier mobility as seamless and financially attractive as possible,” said Gregory Poilasne, CEO, Nuvve.

“Nuvve and New England Transit Sales have demonstrated that they’re as committed as we are to Lawrence Public Schools and student health. We’re excited to bring this clean transportation breakthrough which benefits our drivers, students and the wider Lawrence community,” said Beacon Senior Vice President of Fleet & Facilities Bill Griffiths.

The Nuvve DC Rapid HD Charging Stations come preconfigured to work with Nuvve’s GIVe™ platform for intelligently charging and discharging to the grid. The solution enables buses to charge when rates are low and discharge when rates are high and the grid is strained. The V2G services are supported under National Grid’s ConnectedSolutions battery program. DC fast-charging comes standard with the Thomas Built Jouley model with each bus capable of a 138-mile operating range on a single charge.

The Lawrence Public Schools serve 13,000 students from K-12 and NRT Bus transports them via its current fleet of 21 full-size diesel buses and 55 minibuses. The community is vulnerable to poor air quality due to its high population density and location near three interstate highways. The fleet of 25 electric school buses could reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 1.35 million pounds per year which is equal to more than 10,000 trees growing for 10 years or taking 136 gas-powered passenger cars off the road for a year.

The Human Element: Making things better for employees, customers

Posted on by Andres Caamano

On April 26, School Transportation News rolled out a podcast, featuring Beacon Mobility CEO Judith Crawford.

During the podcast, the discussion revolved around the importance of training and partnerships, marketplace trends, and how to maximize support for both her team and the school districts that Beacon serves.

Listen in on the podcast, to learn how the company seeks to make things better for employees as well as its customers.

 

Welcome back to school. Your new driver is wearing fatigues.

Posted on by Andres Caamano

CHELSEA, Mass. — When Sgt. Phillip Hickman served as the crew chief on a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter, he was responsible for maintaining the aircraft, firing a mounted weapon and overseeing everyone on board.

His current mission involves a different kind of cargo: middle-schoolers.

On a recent afternoon, Hickman was sitting behind the wheel of a silver school transport van wearing fatigues and a matching face mask. The dismissal bell was about to ring.

“I’m used to manifests and moving people around,” said Hickman, 36. But this “is the last thing I expected.”

Hickman is part of an unusual and unprecedented assignment. Faced with a shortage of school bus drivers, Massachusetts has deployed more than 200 members of the National Guard to help nine communities get their kids to school. People with knowledge of National Guard missions in the state say they can’t recall another time when soldiers have played this kind of role.

While Massachusetts is the only state to take such a step, the scarcity of bus drivers is impacting school districts across the country, leading to transportation delays, the disruption of extracurricular activities and even the suspension of in-person learning in a handful of cases.

The sight of men and women in uniform driving children to school highlights the profound ways the pandemic is reshaping the U.S. economy. There are shortages of workers in restaurants, hotels, day cares and nursing homes. The supply chain remains warped. But at the same time, new businesses have opened up at a record clip.

“The pandemic is so counterintuitive and paradoxical,” said David Autor, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Economists are racing to understand the labor shortage, he said, but the most prevalent explanations — that government aid and uncertainties around child care have diminished the willingness to work — are not yet supported by data.

Autor believes many workers are simply changing tracks. Some people “have realized, ‘Wow, those jobs are more terrible than I realized,’ and they’re trying to switch to new activities,’” he said.

To deal with the shortage of school bus drivers, communities and businesses have had to improvise. School bus companies are offering free training and thousands of dollars in sign-on bonuses to attract recruits, whose wages can range from $16 to $30 an hour. Some states, like New York, have tried to speed up the licensing process for drivers. Philadelphia is offering parents $300 a month to drive their own kids to and from school.

Mirna Ardon lives in Chelsea, a tiny, densely populated city just north of Boston. She said her 14-year-old son Angel didn’t have reliable transportation for weeks — the bus was late or didn’t show up, and her husband couldn’t keep dropping off their son without losing hours and pay at his job.

Angel, who is autistic, struggles with interruptions to his routine. “The unreliability was making everyone agitated,” said Ardon, 44.

The first time Ardon saw a soldier behind the wheel of her son’s school transport van, she was relieved. The National Guard had been present in the community during the crushing first wave of the pandemic, distributing food and helping her neighbors. “There was trust and respect there,” she said.

On a recent Saturday morning, 27 members of the National Guard gathered at dawn in the parking lot of a Sheraton hotel near Boston. They practiced how to turn on a school bus’ stop sign, operate its wheelchair lifts and conduct the all-important post-drive walk through to ensure that no kids are left behind on the bus.

Later in the morning, an instructor congratulated them on passing their written tests and issued a final, crucial reminder: always make sure kids have someone waiting for them when they get off the bus.

John McCarthy, the chief executive of NRT Bus, was overseeing the training. Even before the pandemic, the school bus industry was scrambling for workers, McCarthy said. But he’s never seen anything like this. As September approached, his normal workforce — about 3,700 drivers — was down 15 percent.

Some of those who had left were older workers who decided to retire or didn’t want to risk possible infection. Other people took new jobs during the long months while kids were doing remote learning — jobs such as delivering packages for Amazon and UPS. “We’re all fishing from the same fishing hole,” said McCarthy. (Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, owns The Washington Post).

McCarthy emptied out his own offices to lend a hand with the shortage, putting managers and dispatchers behind the wheel. Often that has left just one person in each of the company’s locations. “Everybody else is driving,” said McCarthy. “It’s been a very stressful time.” He added that the firm has seen an uptick in recruits in recent weeks, giving him some hope that the acute shortage won’t last forever.

In New York, the situation is similar. David Christopher, executive director of the New York Association for Pupil Transportation, estimated that there were about 55,000 school bus drivers in the state before the pandemic and 15 to 20 percent of them have left the profession. “It’s the aging driving force, it’s the pandemic, it’s the availability of other kinds of jobs,” Christopher said.

Many school districts are finding ways to manage with fewer drivers, but if something goes awry, the consequences can be dramatic. Melinda Smith, superintendent of Thompson Public Schools in Connecticut, received a phone call early on a Sunday morning last month telling her that half of the district’s bus drivers had either tested positive for the coronavirus or were in quarantine.

Normally, she said, the bus company could pull substitute drivers from other locations. This time it was impossible. Unable to transport children, the district had to return its nearly 1,000 students to remote learning over a two-week period.

“This is the first time in my career that this has ever happened, that we can’t get kids to school,” said Thompson, who has worked in education for 40 years.

In Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker (R) authorized the deployment of up to 250 National Guard members to help drive children to school on Sept. 13.

At least nine cities are receiving assistance, including Chelsea, Lawrence, Lynn, Holyoke and Framingham. Timothy McGuirk, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, declined to say whether more cities would join them or how long the help would last. “We are just focusing on the mission,” he said.

That mission, called “Children First,” has soldiers driving various types of vans to transport children to school, rather than regular buses. That’s because such vans require what is known in Massachusetts as a “7D” license that is relatively easy to obtain. To drive a large school bus, a person needs a commercial driver’s license, which can take weeks.

In Chelsea, schools superintendent Almudena Abeyta initially hesitated to bring in National Guard members as drivers. Chelsea is a majority Latino community with a large immigrant population and Abeyta wondered how parents “would feel if someone in uniform picks up their child for school.” But after conferring with other city officials, she said yes.

When the school year started, Abeyta’s office had been flooded with calls from parents saying their kids were arriving to class late, or took forever to get home, or the bus never came.Some people might say that the situation isn’t an emergency, she said. But “educating children and getting them to school on time, in my opinion, is worth the National Guard coming in.”

On a recent cloudy afternoon, three soldiers arrived in quick succession and parked their vans outside the front entrance of the Morris H. Seigal Clark Avenue School in Chelsea.

Richard Gibbs, 23, was sitting behind the wheel of a red van with a bus monitor at his side. These days he rises by 4 a.m., drives his van from Camp Curtis Guild in Reading, picks up the bus monitor and two rounds of children, then returns by around 9 a.m. — before doing it all again in the afternoon.

A boy arrived carrying a black backpack, a sweatshirt tied around his waist. He bumped fists with Gibbs, then climbed into the back of the van and fastened his seat belt. “They’re great kids,” Gibbs said.

A few vehicles down, Hickman, the former helicopter crew chief, leaned out the driver’s side window to review a list of students with the school’s special education coordinator. He said that the kids have adjusted to their new driver with a minimum of fuss.

Only rarely does a student ask him about being a soldier. Instead, Hickman said, they just want to know “why they aren’t home yet.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/10/07/school-bus-shortage-massachusetts-national-guard/

Mass. National Guard steps in to aid in school transportation

Posted on by Andres Caamano

READING – It usually takes longer than one day to become a school bus driver but more than 60 members of the Massachusetts National Guard were able to go through the entire process Tuesday at Camp Curtis Guild and they’ll be ready to hit the streets this week.

Sixty-seven members of the National Guard left Camp Curtis Guild with a new 7D certification in hand and will begin bus routes throughout Lowell, Chelsea and Lynn as early as Thursday.

(On Sept. 14) we had 75 members come out and 67 passed that course, which was great,” NRT Bus CEO John McCarthy said. “These folks will be in uniform, meeting kids just like bus drivers do, bringing them to school, so they’re really excited about this mission.”

John McCarthy is the CEO of NRT Bus – which provides transportation for students throughout Massachusetts and is working to train National Guard members.

“They’re very positive about taking children to school, they think it’s a unique opportunity to connect with the community in a different way,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy said members started the day at 7:30 a.m. and went through fingerprinting, classroom exams and road tests, all to help the state deal with a shortage of bus drivers. NRT Bus reports it was down 350 employees three weeks ago but said the National Guard will be able to fill the void as they recruit new drivers.

“These folks went on and found other jobs,” McCarthy said. “We also had a little bit of a challenge with the unemployment being extended to where it is but we’re seeing a lot of candidates come in through the door now.”

McCarthy said another 65 service members will be training for their 7D certification Wednesday at Camp Curtis Guild and they’re set to begin helping the Lawrence school district on Monday.

She’s in the driver’s seat and the kids love it

Posted on by Andres Caamano

DRACUT — From the driver’s seat of the school bus she’s driven here for nearly a half a century now, Ginger Caggiano has been a dutiful, gasoline-powered lesson in longevity, dedication, and street-smart diplomacy.

She’s the smiling fixture behind the wheel, opening her yellow doors to generations of children who have used crayons and pencils to send her messages of gratitude.

She’s seen hemlines rise and fall.

She’s seen haircuts morph from buzz cuts to shoulder-length. And back.

She’s scolded bullies and comforted scared little kids dressed in fresh new clothes on their way to their first day of school.

At 81, as another school year has arrived, she has tended her garden, doted on her flowers, and savored the summer sun.

And now it’s time to start up her school bus again.

“It’s a great excitement for me,’’ she told me as we sat on her bus at the transportation company yard here the other day. “It’s just a tradition. All my life, I’ve just enjoyed it. I love the first day of school. If I couldn’t be behind the wheel on the first day, I’d be so sad.’’

So would all those little school kids. So would their teary-eyed parents, who kiss them goodbye. So would her co-workers for whom she is both role model and a kind of transportation den mother.

And legend.

“It takes a special person to do what she does,’’ said John J. McCarthy, the chief executive of Trombly Motor Coach Service Inc. “School bus drivers don’t grow on trees. She really is a gift to the industry. And she’s a great driver.’’

“She cares,’’ agreed Lynda Cruz, the bus terminal manager. “That’s huge. She is here every day. She cares about the kids. And that’s the important part.’’

Virginia Caggiano learned that lesson early in her life. You could say it’s in her blood.

She was raised in Boston. Her father drove a big rig truck and eventually moved the family to Everett, where Virginia graduated from high school in 1957.

“I walked to school,’’ she said. “No bus for me.’’

Eventually, after a 10-year stint in the underwriting department for John Hancock Life Insurance Co. where she started work in 1957, she married, moved from Everett to Dracut, and joined a summer softball league team.

“So, these softball players drove school buses and some of them came in and said to me: ‘Would you like to train?’ ‘’ she recalled.

Well, yes, she told them. Sign me up.

And that’s why generations of school kids here learned to greet “Ginger,’’ each morning, a name that was inadvertently shortened by a niece for whom “Virginia” was just too much of a mouthful.

“So, for years, everybody here at the bus company calls me Ginger,’’ she said.

They call her other things too. Professional. Patient. A skilled school bus driver with genuine heart.

“She’s been doing it since I was 3 years old,’’ said her daughter, 51-year-old Lynda Caggiano. “I remember being a little girl and going with her on the bus. She loves the kids. She loves the people. My mother is a very people person.’’

That’s a prerequisite for a job behind the wheel with precious cargo wearing backpacks, staring back at you in that big mirror above the driver’s seat.

“You have to learn how to park,’’ she said. “You have to back up. You have to always watch your mirrors. Those mirrors are your guide. You always have to see what’s going on. You have to watch the kids.

“You have to have four eyes really. You’ve got to watch everything going on.’’

And as the miles — and the years — pass behind you on all those trips to school, you learn to develop a special set of street smarts.

“You have to have patience,’’ she said. “That’s the main thing. Patience. Be kind. Be a good listener. And make friends with the worst kid on the bus. And I used to have some really rough ones.’’

But, she said, kids are kids. Treat them as you’d like to be treated. And the bus will calm down.

“My whole outlook is that if you have a bad kid, they’re not really bad,’’ she said. “They’re just showing off. And I always had a way about me that kids remember me, especially the worst ones. I meet them on the street — even now to this day — and they come by my house now for Halloween with their own kids.’’

Hi, Ginger. Trick or treat?

Mostly it’s been a treat for Virginia Caggiano, who started out earning $3 an hour, a wage that across the decades has grown to $22 an hour.

There have been some unsettling bumps along the way.

She’s an ovarian cancer survivor.

She’s also a survivor of a head-on crash by a driver who, she said, was impaired — an incident that occurred years ago.

She’s dutifully obeyed the careful protocols brought on by the COVID pandemic.

When she’s behind the wheel, she adopts a no-nonsense persona.

She won’t put up with foul language.

She won’t tolerate any behavior that would imperil the kids seated behind her.

She used to drive a 47-foot bus. But her cargo is no less precious on the smaller bus she drives now.

“She was the one who ultimately said she was going to drive a smaller bus,’’ McCarthy said. “She made that decision. She knows what her capabilities are. And she knows her limitations.’’

And she knows how the parents feel on these first days of school — a mixture of relief and anxiety. The need to linger just a bit before saying goodbye, trusting their children to the kindly, smiling woman behind the wheel.

“Sometimes it’s hard for some of the kids to let loose of the parent,’’ she said. “So, I have to help them on the bus and tell them what a wonderful day they’re going to have. And I put them in the seat.’’

And then it’s time to sit behind the wheel, fasten the seat belt, and guide the yellow bus to the schoolhouse door.

And when school’s out, there are frequent reminders about this special bond formed on that yellow bus.

“All the time,’’ she said. “I’m in Hannaford or I’m in Market Basket and the kids will say, ‘Mom! That’s Ginger over there! Let’s go see her!’

“I can hear them and it’s great. It really is. On Halloween I have a big display in front of my house and in my garage and they come from all over. They know Ginger’s the place for Halloween. And they come to see me.

“And I see the parents of kids used to drive. Grandparents I used to drive. Yeah. We’re going way back. And it’s a good feeling.’’

Summer’s over. Fall is in the air.

And the schoolhouse door has swung open again.

And Ginger Caggiano, that kindly woman behind the wheel, is ready to take her kids to the place where the teachers take over.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/09/12/metro/shes-drivers-seat-kids-love-it/

 

 

School Bus Companies, And Drivers, Face COVID’s Financial Fallout

Posted on by Alice Marks

School bus driver Maureen McAlear loves her job, but it’s not what it used to be. Hybrid school schedules and few after school activities mean drivers are working — and earning — less. McAlear, who is a union steward for her fellow drivers, said they rely on full pay and the extra driving to make ends meet.

“It means we can pay our mortgage, we can buy food and put it on the table and pay our bills, heating, electricity and our car payment to get us to work. We’re not jet-setting out to Aruba. This is money that we need. These drivers aren’t independently wealthy,” she said.

When schools reopen fully, many will count on those familiar yellow buses to be ready to roll. But local bus companies — which make up an estimated 40 percent of the country’s school transport — are facing financial threat. Even when buses are idle, companies have fixed costs to pay, including insurance, maintenance and paying drivers. The School Transportation Association of Massachusetts (STAM) said more than a dozen local companies are in financial trouble.

And even before the pandemic, keeping a roster of trained and vetted school bus drivers wasn’t easy. With a rise in demand for delivery drivers, there’s a worry drivers are being lured away.

“We need to be able to pay them what they’re accustomed to getting or we’re gonna lose them,” said David Strong, president of STAM. “Amazon is looking for drivers because their business is booming. Why not a school bus driver?”

https://www.wgbh.org/news/local-news/2020/09/30/school-bus-companies-and-drivers-face-covids-financial-fallout

Haverhill Schools, NRT Outline Safety Steps as School Buses Begin Rolling this Term

Posted on by Alice Marks

School buses will soon be rolling through Haverhill.

Yesterday, the school administration published the bus routes for this year. School Assistant Superintendent Michael Pfifferling reminded the School Committee last night that because of social distancing and other COVID-19 restrictions, coming up with a schedule was a puzzle and, for the first time, requires students have a bus pass in order to ride.

“A tremendous amount of work has been put in getting us the information we need as far as cohorts and who needs bus passes. There are two different types of bus passes. One is a cohort A bus pass. Those are bus passes for transportation on Monday and Tuesday and a cohort B bus pass, which is good for transportation on Thursday and Friday. Students who go Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday will be issued two bus passes,” he explained.

Pfifferling said about 3,000 passes have been printed and are available for pickup now. He acknowledged not all parents and students will be able to pick them up before Monday, however, so there will be some leniency during the first week.

Christine Valcourt of NRT, the company that provides school bus transportation for the city, explained what steps that company was taking to safeguard the students who will be riding.

“We are fogging the buses daily with a 24-hour disinfectant. We have put markings on the seats so we are one student staggered per seat. The school department is supplying us with spare masks for students that don’t have any, so those will be in every bus along with hand sanitizer and cleaning equipment for spills. Social distancing is being watched at bus stops and I’ve got to tell you, the whole team can’t wait to get back to work,” she said.

Valcourt said the company’s safety department also put together a video on school bus safety and procedures, which the assistant superintendent said will be posted on the Haverhill Public Schools website along with all of the bus routes and schedules.

On school buses this fall: masks, open windows, and distanced seat assignments

Posted on by Alice Marks

Students will have to don face coverings to board school buses this fall, but they will each get an entire seat to themselves to maintain social distancing, under new state guidelines that will dramatically reduce ridership and complicate reopening plans for many districts across Massachusetts.

The seating restriction — instead of the usual two or three students per seat — means ridership capacity will shrink by more than 50 percent and could dramatically increase the cost of busing students.

That, in turn, could cause districts to implore parents to drive or walk their children to school, or lead school districts to operate buses in multiple waves, stagger school start times, or alternate students between days of in-person instruction and remote learning, according to the guidelines created in response to the pandemic.

“In developing this guidance, the health and safety of students and staff were our top priorities,” state Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley wrote in a letter to superintendents that was sent out late Wednesday night with the guidelines.
The guidelines also recommend hand sanitizing, cleaning buses after morning and afternoon runs, opening school bus windows as much as possible, and assigning students to specific seats. The latter could result in having a student sit near a window in one row and having another student near the aisle in the next row to ensure the greatest distance possible. The guidelines are designed to maintain a distance of at least 3 feet between students.

The rules come as districts statewide are scrambling to meet a July 31 deadline to submit a summary of three fall options they are developing — under orders from state education officials — that would provide a full-scale return to school, a continuation of only remote learning, or a mix of the two. Comprehensive plans are due Aug. 10.

School district officials have been stalled in crafting their reopening plans because critical guidance from the state, including safety measures for school buses, have been trickling out slowly as state officials consult with educators, medical experts, and other stakeholders. Governor Charlie Baker, who ordered schools closed in March, is encouraging all districts to bring back as many students as possible this fall, depending on the course of the pandemic.

Districts could gain some wiggle room on buses, depending on how many parents keep their children at home. Children can also share seats if they live in the same household.

Given that busing students could take more time this fall, the state will allow districts to cut into required instructional hours on a case-by-case basis.

Robert Baldwin, superintendent of the Fairhaven school system on the South Coast, said the ever-evolving information on school reopening is creating a tense decision-making process. The transportation guidelines, he said, have him wondering if he will need additional bus runs, whether the transportation company will have the capacity to do it, and how that might influence the final school reopening plan.

“This is like a three-month-long snow day decision: constantly having different variables change and then you have to make adjustments,” he said. “And in the end, you know what will happen when you make a call, people will disagree with you.”

That dynamic is already emerging in Lexington, which decided at the end of June to do a mix of in-person and remote learning for the coming school year. Some parents, upset the district won’t do a full-scale return to school this fall, are planning a protest Friday night.

The new guidelines generated a range of reactions. Chris Matero, a West Roxbury parent, said he was comfortable with the guidelines, noting his children’s commutes will likely be the safest part of their day. His son has been traveling in a small school bus with few students on board while his daughter takes a commuter rail train, which has had few riders lately, and an MBTA bus.

“I’m more concerned about them spending the whole day in their classrooms,” he said, citing poor ventilation in the school system’s aging buildings. He thinks in-person learning should be delayed until a vaccine or a reliable COVID-19 treatment is available, but his children are eager to return.

Boston school officials are leaning toward a mix of in-person and remote learning in the fall, citing concerns about transportation as part of their rationale.

Andre Francois, president of the Boston School Bus Drivers Union, said the transportation guidelines don’t go far enough and doubted the staggered seating would ensure 3 feet of social distancing, especially given how active children are.

“They are not going to stay in their seats,” he said. “People are going to get sick like crazy.”

Four Boston school bus drivers died of COVID-19 this spring, he said.

Transportation restrictions are expected to be the most cumbersome for Boston, which buses more than 24,000 students to 235 city-run, private, and charter schools. It remains unclear how social distancing will strain its fleet of 721 buses. Boston school officials have been criticized for years for running too many buses with few students on board, while most students in grades 7-12 take the MBTA.

The state guidelines also address students who will be riding public transit, encouraging districts to avoid having students ride during rush hour, among other measures.

Jonathan Palumbo, a district spokesman, said in a statement school officials will closely read the state’s busing guidelines.

The state guidelines, in addressing students who may appear to be sick, seem to offer somewhat contradictory advice at times. For instance, the guidelines recommend posting signs near the doors of the buses “clearly indicating that no one may enter if they have symptoms of respiratory illness or fever” and if children become sick during the school day, they shouldn’t ride the bus.

However, the guidelines also state “if a student who may be symptomatic must board the vehicle, they should be spaced at least 6 feet from other students as feasible” and that area should not be used again until after it has been disinfected.

The state guidelines, like the ones the state issued for classrooms, set a lower standard for social distancing on school buses than the 6 feet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended in its guidelines, which suggested leaving every other row empty.

The CDC guidelines would have likely limited capacity on a typical bus to about a dozen students, making it unfeasible to transport students, said John McCarthy, chief executive officer of NRT and Van Pool, a school busing company based in Framingham. He applauded Massachusetts education officials for finding a comfortable middle ground between the CDC guidelines and private sector transportation operators, noting that airlines are leaving only middle seats empty and some are now even filling those.

“They did a great job of minimizing risk and capitalizing on safety,” said McCarthy, who sits on the state’s school reopening task force and had a hand in developing the busing guidelines. “It’s very well thought out.”

Nevertheless, he said the guidelines could cause challenges. For instance, he said, a shortage of school bus drivers — compounded by some current drivers at high risk of COVID-19 — could make it difficult for districts to add more buses. But he added some laid-off workers in other sectors of the economy hard hit by the pandemic might find bus driving jobs appealing.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/07/23/metro/school-buses-this-fall-masks-cracked-windows-one-student-per-seat/

Pentucket community members deliver signs to graduates

Posted on by Alice Marks

Superintendent Justin Bartholomew and Pentucket High School Principal Jonathan Seymour recently shared that administrators, volunteer parents, first responders and community members from Groveland, Merrimac and West Newbury came together to spread some cheer among the senior class.

Approximately 180 seniors were greeted by administrators and parents who rode buses decorated with banners that read “Class of 2020 We are Proud of You” and printed with the Pentucket “P” on May 12. The buses were accompanied by a fire engine and police cruiser from each town.

“This was a really special, festive way for us to recognize our seniors and surprise them at a time when they may need a reminder that we’re all here for them,” Seymour said. “They’ve accomplished a great deal over their high school careers and we want them to know we’re proud of the young adults they’ve all become.”

The effort was coordinated by the Pentucket Parent Alliance Senior Celebration Committee, a nonprofit committee formed in 1994 that hosts an annual Senior Celebration event for the senior class at Pentucket. Each year, the event offers a substance free, chaperoned, all-night opportunity for seniors to celebrate their graduation together.

Whether or not the event may still happen this year has yet to be determined, pending further guidance from the state on social distancing. In the meantime, the Pentucket Parent Alliance Senior Celebration Committee seized the opportunity to coordinate a parade in partnership with the district while delivering signs to recognize seniors.

“Our seniors deserve to be celebrated and to fully feel the joy and sense of accomplishment that comes with graduating from high school,” Bartholomew said. “I’d like to thank everyone who made this parade possible and those who volunteered to take part in it to help recognize our graduates.”

Participants in the parade adhered closely to social distancing guidelines for the duration of the event, including wearing face coverings. Administrators and volunteers visited the residence of each senior and students were given a free lawn sign which reads “Proud Supporter of a Pentucket High School Class of 2020 Senior #inthistogether,” a T-shirt which reads “Pentucket 2020 senior #inthistogether” and gift certificate for a free ice cream donated by Long Hill Orchard and Farm in West Newbury.

“It just warms my heart, being the parent of a senior, to see the support of the district and all three towns for this parade,” said Julie Conover, a member of the Pentucket Parent Alliance Senior Celebration Committee. “This is a big milestone for the Class of 2020 and we knew this was an opportunity to surprise and celebrate the senior class in a meaningful way that lets them know we’re thinking about them but also in a safe, organized manner.”

The T-shirts, lawn signs and banners on the buses were designed by Johanna Tolman, a volunteer and paid for by fundraisers the Pentucket Parent Alliance Senior Celebration Committee held earlier this year as well as donations.

Salter Transportation donated a school bus and driver for each town’s parade and mapped out the bus routes. The Institution for Savings of Newbury, Karol Flannery of William Raveis Real Estate and Cindy Adams, of Long Hill Orchard and the Big Scoop, all donated financially to support the event as well.

The Class of 2020 graduation ceremony is scheduled to take place June 6 and Pentucket High School and district administrators are working with student leaders, parents and guardians to develop ways to celebrate the senior class that adhere to the evolving social distancing guidelines and standards being set by the state. Additional information will be shared with students and their families about the ceremony as it becomes available.

https://newburyport.wickedlocal.com/news/20200521/pentucket-community-members-deliver-signs-to-graduates