The Courier February 2015 | Volume 22, Issue 7
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a division of Independent School District 15 Community Education | St. Francis, Minnesota Serving the communities of Athens Township, Andover, Bethel, East Bethel, Linwood Township, Nowthen, Oak Grove, St. Francis and Stanford Township
www.the-courier.org | news@isd15.org
Bus rider program enhances Transportation Department General Knowledge, School Bus, Passenger, and Air Brakes. While studying, they are trained as Type III drivers and educational Independent School District assistants and can function as 15’s Transportation Department substitutes on routes, filling in staffing has been greatly for absent staff. Bus riders have enhanced this year by the also helped with routes that need addition of a new bus rider an extra adult for supervision program. Bus rider is a new staff and discipline while they gain position that allows those with informal training riding on no school bus license to begin routes. Once they pass all four working as soon as they are hired. tests, the bus rider is assigned to Training is done on-the-job while a trainer, who helps prepare him/ these riders fill vital roles in the her for the bus test. Upon passing, department. the bus rider can then drive a Mike Benner, a former IT route or trip on his/her own. technician and sales specialist, This program gives potential started driving a school bus this drivers the opportunity to not school year and was the first only learn on the job, but also to come through the new bus help the individual determine if rider program. Benner started this position is a good fit. Some with no commercial license and have tried the bus rider program no previous school bus driving and decided that this is not for experience. He first considered them, which is beneficial to both driving a school bus because, employee and employer to figure “I’m good with kids and patient with them.” He added, “I thought Cheri Ingalls and Mike Benner, new school bus drivers for Independent School District 15, started out early on in the program. The in the bus rider program and advanced to bus driver. They are completing a safety inspection Transportation Department has this job would be close to home on Bus 20, a new Freightliner C-2 propane bus, the District’s first 77-passenger compressed fuel found that those individuals who and give me more time there. bus. Look for an article on the expanding propane bus fleet and the advantages of this green and continue through the program Starting as a rider gave me the Photo by deb Thayer, the courier efficient fuel in the March Courier. will have exhaustive exposure, opportunity to gain an informal experience and excellent training understanding of what happens now an unassigned driver, filling in for drivers who in all aspects of school transportation. on a bus—the challenges of trying to get the kids are absent. where they need to be while keeping them under Another new driver through the program, Cheri control. Driving bus is not easy, but that is what I Ingalls, came from a background in banking. Like expected.” Benner is grateful for the opportunity and other bus riders, her progress started by becoming challenge that the bus rider program gave him. He is trained in Type III buses—the District’s fleet of cars and vans. Along with fulfilling the state By Paul Neubauer requirements for a Type III driver, she also ISD 15 Director of Curriculum and Instruction learned the literal ins and outs of lifting and fastening wheelchairs and child restraints. With increased demands on student and staff She has been filling in on car and van routes time, it has become a necessity and a reality for all as a driver and functioning as a substitute to continually look for ways to be efficient in all that educational assistant on special services we do. Additionally, there are increased demands for routes. After Ingalls passed her four permit accountability and an insistence on being effective at tests, she began training on school buses with what we do, whether as a student (regardless of age) a behind-the-wheel instructor. She passed or an employee of Independent School District 15 her state driving test and is now driving a (ISD 15). route. Ingalls considered driving school bus As parents/guardians are invited to conferences, they can see learning targets posted throughout because she loves kids and wanted to get classrooms indicating to students precisely what out of the corporate world. She commented, they are supposed to be able to know and do on “The training process was harder than I any particular day. This is meant to help students had anticipated, because it is more than just efficiently focus driving a bus. But the training catered to me on the task of in the way that I learn best. Now, I absolutely learning during The Independent School District 15 Transportation Department love bus driving.” any moment of the The bus rider program is an unprecedented Schools in Action............................. 2 includes Jeremy Bolles, route specialist/safety coordinator day. In addition, specializing in creating and updating routes, training drivers, opportunity that the ISD 15 School Board School Board Highlights............. 9 staff continually and student discipline; Lisa Vickstrom, office professional, approved for the Transportation Department. Community Education.............. 10 evaluates the works on scheduling drivers and Special Services routing; Al It allows people, who are interested in activities students Community & Business............. 13 Nynas, route specialist/safety coordinator, focuses on trip becoming school bus drivers, to start work are doing to ensure Sports & Outdoors....................... 24 planning, driver scheduling and safety issues; and Dean Krause, without being fully licensed. They begin by the activities Life......................................................... 27 Transportation Department program supervisor, who oversees studying the state manual in preparation Continued Page 19 for testing and obtaining permits in CDL the entire operation. Photo by deb Thayer, the courier Meetings, Events & Benefits... 28 By Jeremy Bolles
Route Specialist, ISD 15 Transportation
Efficiency and effectiveness— classroom implications
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