STN Publisher and President Tony Corpin sat down with a few special guests at this week’s Transporting Students with Disabilities & Special Needs (TSD) Conference and Trade Show.

Gregg Prettyman, vice president of FirstAlt by contractor First Student, shares the program’s successes in serving students with special needs or disabilities and dispels myths about the alternative transportation industry.

Mike Ippolito, general manager of School Radio by Diga-Talk, shares how product developments like a new Wi-Fi-enabled radio can increase school bus connectivity and student safety.

Transfinder’s Vice President of Marketing John Daniels and client Annette “Kecia” Ling, transportation director of operations and planning for Savannah-Chatham County Public School System in Georgia, discuss leveraging technology to provide uniquely customized transportation service for students with special needs.

Hear soundbites from some of our attendees as they share what they found useful amid the learning, training and networking at the TSD Conference and Trade Show.

Read more about special needs.

This episode is brought to you by Transfinder.

Message from School Radio.

Stream, subscribe and download the School Transportation Nation podcast on Apple Podcasts, Deezer, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, RadioPublic, Spotify, Stitcher and YouTube.

The post (STN Podcast E235) Onsite at TSD 2024: Solving Pain Points for Students with Special Needs appeared first on School Transportation News.

Brian Joyner and Karim Johnson, two seasoned pros in the school transportation business, find themselves in new roles but dealing with the same challenges as they joined peers across the nation working to achieve a smooth start to the new academic year.

Meanwhile, surveys released over the summer by two transportation companies shed light not only on those challenges but some of the high expectations expressed by parents nationwide.

Zūm, which serves more than 4,000 school sites with end-to-end transportation technology solutions and electric fleets, found that 84 percent of parents surveyed said the U.S. school bus system could stand to improve.

“This new survey shows that most parents are looking for increased safety and transparency on the school bus, as well as healthier, more sustainable rides for their children,” said Ritu Narayan, the company’s founder and CEO.

Meanwhile, the HopSkipDrive 2024 State of School Transportation Report found 91 percent of the 400 fleet managers surveyed said their operations are “constrained by school bus driver shortages, staying steady from 2023 and increased from 88 percent in 2022.”

Additionally, 64 percent of parents said coordinating school transportation is “the most stressful part of the back-to-school season.” (HopSkipDrive said it provides
more than 10,000 school sites in 13 states with alternative transportation options. Its employees also build software and provide advisory services that solve districts’ transportation challenges.)

The HopSkipDrive survey of 500 parents of school aged children around the country also found that 62 percent said driving their children to and from school or activities has caused them to miss work. “Among parents, more than three-quarters (79 percent) say they or their partner/spouse drive their children to and from school, and 41 percent of their schools have eliminated or reduced their children’s school bus services,” a company news release stated. “(Twenty-one) percent say transportation challenges are the biggest contributor to chronic absenteeism, more so than family decisions regarding student health.”

The Zūm survey suggests parents are searching for more flexibility, with 63 percent of them saying their kids would miss less school if “more convenient school transportation options were available.”

More than eight in 10 expressed interest in using a mobile app to stay informed of their child’s location on the school bus and would use a mobile app to “know their child’s bus arrival time, similar to tracking an Uber driver’s arrival.” In fact, the Zum survey noted that, “Out of those who don’t use the school bus to transport their children, 40 percent said they would reconsider if they could track their child’s arrival and departure.”

Neither Joyner, who was promoted to transportation director of the Union County Public Schools in North Carolina, after 16 years in the department, nor Johnson, who is in his second year as transportation director for the Stafford County (Va.) Public Schools after serving in a similar position in New York state for several years and before that as a transportation operations and routing supervisor for several school districts in South Carolina, were surprised by those results. Joyner described the driver shortage as “our biggest struggle.”

It’s not as bad as what it has been, but we’re definitely not where we need to be,” he said. He attributed an uptick in applicants and success retaining drivers to an hourly pay increase for all drivers, including a $20 minimum hourly rate in place of a previous per-semester attendance bonus. The move puts the district on a more competitive footing with surrounding districts and area bus companies.

“Each semester, they could miss up to five days excused and get the bonus, but the bonus was never guaranteed year to year depending on finances. So, I asked them, ‘Would you rather have an attendance bonus or an increase in pay?’ The majority of drivers said, ‘We want an increase in pay,’” Joyner said. “We talked to finance and the school board and everyone agreed that we could pull off $20 an hour. Our existing drivers were making more than that, and we adjusted our whole scale.”

HopSkipDrive CEO and co-founder Joanna McFarland said her company’s annual survey “shows a continued need for inventive thinking, and a stalwart commitment to our students and parents, to work to overcome real, significant challenges like this continuing bus driver shortage.

“It shouldn’t be this hard for our hard-working educational leaders when new options are at hand,” McFarland continued. “The current state of our school transportation system demands we all work to ensure students and their families can access the same opportunities of education and school support.”

Johnson acknowledged a “marketplace for the alternative transportation providers. “As with any new emerging type technologies or systems, you got to start looking at all those pieces. It’s a balance,” he continued. “Unequivocally, the safest form of travel is the yellow school bus. Nobody will deny that. When you start trying to dial back from that, how does that look? How can you replicate what makes the yellow bus safe in that alternative transportation space? The industry is working through that because I don’t think alternative transportation is going to go away and there’s a niche for it.”

Interestingly, the two surveys revealed a gap between parents’ expectations and school leaders’ priorities on bus electrification. Eighty percent of parents in the Zūm survey expressed concern about the dangers of diesel fumes and 64 percent said they believe it’s important to convert to electric. Meanwhile, 73 percent of school leaders told HopSkipDrive that electrifying their fleet is either not very important or not important at all.

Johnson said the gap is not as stark as those numbers suggest. “I honestly think nobody in the industry disagrees on anything that benefits the health, welfare and
safety of a child. So, if it’s electric buses, propane, hydrogen fuel cell, if we get there, whatever technology that’s going to make it healthier and safer for school children, everybody is 100 percent on board,” he said.

Johnson, who oversaw the addition of five electric buses and supporting infrastructure at the Bethlehem Central School District in Delmar, New York, in 2021, said an issue is the practicality of deploying those technologies. “It’s not that simple. Now the transportation director has to put on his contractor hat, become an electrical engineer, figure out how to pay for it. In Bethlehem there was a team, not only me, but it was also the facilities director, our business official in the central office, the school board, the community. We were able to successfully deploy the project and it worked for that particular school system but the situation is different in different places,” he said, noting for a variety of reasons that none of the Stafford district’s 311 buses run on alternative fuels.

“You’ve got to look at all those pieces, and then when you start getting into the budgets, how is that sustainable? You can basically buy two (diesel) buses for one EV, and you’re struggling just to be able to buy buses for your fleet. How can you justify to your taxpayers that you’re basically buying one bus for every two?”

Joyner agreed. “We do have some propane buses, but I haven’t heard any interest at all on electrification…,” he added. “For electrification, we’d have to hire a different type of technician, and I also worry about how long is that bus going to last us.”

The HopSkipDrive poll also found 60 percent of school leaders said they’ve eliminated or reduced bus services this year, up from 40 percent last year. Joyner said the Union County district consolidated routes coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, including pulling service from gated communities. “We changed bell times up to about 20 minutes to some schools. That way allows us to go back and run quick doubles morning and afternoon, if need be,” he said. “So, we went from roughly 289 buses pre-COVID to 202 this year and added seven minivans to our fleet to help with our EC and McKinney-Vento kids.”

A New Approach
Last year’s school start was anything but smooth for the Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Kentucky. Classes were delayed one week due to a “pretty catastrophic opening day… where we had routes that were way too long, a huge lack of bus drivers, and our service was pretty bad,” said Rob Fulk, the district’s chief operations officer. “We spent a year in that hell, where we had schools that were waiting two to three hours after the bell to have kids picked up. We had students going late to school. We had a very clear impetus to change, and we felt by focusing entirely on good service and good communication between our schools, our parents and our bus drivers that we could solve the problem.”

The result was a complete overhaul of the district routing plan and a procedural rewrite of how the transportation department supports schools, tracks buses and responds to issues. “There wasn’t any aspect that we didn’t change dramatically in our transportation department, including going back to geographic regions, starting a district-based routing team as opposed to using any outside vendor, and our own internal routers,” Fulk said.

“We completely changed how we did our intake, call center and communications with parents. We added significant technology to all of our buses. One of the big game changers for us was Samsara technology, which gave us several cameras on every bus that allowed us real time [access] to see where students were, what stops they got off, as well as real-time GPS on the bus that gives us exactly where it’s at, what their timing is on the route, and a whole host of other things.”

Another plus was driver input sought by Fulk, transportation director Marcus Dobbs, and their teams. “We really partnered with our bus drivers’ primary union, Teamsters Local 783, as we made changes and we would solicit a pretty significant amount of feedback,” Fulk said.

Meanwhile, the district’s communication department created a system including a call center, to receive parents’ feedback and quickly inform them of transportation changes. A crucial change was to address the need to increase driver ranks, which numbered roughly 1,100 a decade ago but ended last year at around 550.

“One of the huge issues we had last year was we were running in excess of 70 routes that were uncovered every day because of lack of drivers, which creates an extremely inefficient system,” Fulk said. “We had drivers putting in 10 hours, 11 hours a day, which is nice for a paycheck in terms of overtime, but when that’s what you do on the regular, that really burns them out. And at the time, I would say that our bus driver pay was not really competitive with some of the other industries in the city that require a CDL.”

Today, the district pays drivers a starting wage of $29 an hour, with extra pay on some routes such as an early childhood run. “We also pay them all at eight hours now and we don’t do the traditional [payment] model that a lot of districts do. If you come to us with no CDL, we train you on the CDL, and we train you on the S [endorsement]. And if you come to us with one or both of those, we’ll give you a bonus after you’ve worked with us for a certain amount of time.”

He praised the district’s human resources staff for holding targeted driver-hiring fairs that were “one-stop shops where you could get your physical done, get your dock card and go through all the steps so that it was less likely that we lost the applicant from application to their first certification class,” he said

Navigating School Start Up
Back in North Carolina, Johnson said the role of attendants or monitors on special education vehicles cannot be underestimated in the smooth delivery of transportation services.

“We talk a lot about school bus drivers, but I definitely want to put out there that attendants are definitely required and part of the team, and we sometimes forget about them,” he said. “But for transportation directors that have lots of SPED routes, you find out that not having that attendant sometimes means that bus can’t roll. Some people think that because they don’t have a CDL, they’re easier to get, but an attendant is not just someone you put on the bus. They need to be trained as much as your driver in order to support students and that’s not a fit for everybody. So, sometimes there’s a shortage of attendants, too.”

Jim Hessel, transportation director of the School District of Cameron in Wisconsin, said new transportation directors (and experienced ones, for that matter) should remember to take care of themselves, know when enough is enough and look for help when considering how to get the academic year off to a smooth start and keeping it on that path.

“The best advice I have to offer is to learn how to manage the stress of the job,” he said. “There are always problems that are going to come up, but how do you deal with them? The first step is to determine if there is even anything you can do about the problem. There are situations that are just out of our control and are not worth wasting time worrying about. You also need to resist the pressure to work on something constantly until you solve it.

He noted that sometimes the focus remains on old solutions, despite those already being ruled out. He advised taking a break or working on another project to clear one’s mind. This can be when a solution, that should have been obvious from the start, presents itself.

“Remember that you are surrounded by other school districts with personnel that are going through most of the same things you are going through. Get to know at least one or two of them and share your ideas and your problems,” Hessel advised. “Finally, I would suggest that you don’t let your job become your whole life. No matter if you are a school district’s transportation director, a bus driver, or the owner of a bus contracting company, you need to have time for yourself that has nothing to do with school buses. The same would apply to anyone in any career. You’ll be more energized and focused when you get back to work after allowing some of the clutter in your brain to escape.”

Editor’s Note: As reprinted in the October 2024 issue of School Transportation News.

Related: (Recorded Webinar) Collaboration, Cooperation & Change: Realigning Transportation to Meet Student Needs
Related: The Route to Safer School Buses
Related: Webinar Reviews Community Benefits of School Bus Electrification
Related: What Do You Really Need from Technology?

The post Avoiding False Starts appeared first on School Transportation News.

Distracting cell phones in California classrooms could be a thing of the past in less than two years as Gov. Gavin Newsom signed bipartisan legislation into law that requires school districts to set policies on banning the communications devices used by students during the school day.

Assembly Bill 3216, the Phone-Free School Act, was introduced in February and became law on Monday, with an effective date of July 1, 2026. California is the fifth state to pass a law requiring school districts to adopt usage policies. Three other states — Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina — have laws that place outright restrictions, with exceptions for emergencies or when required by students with Individualized Education Programs.

While the California law does not specifically address use of cell phones and communications devices on school buses, the development and adoption of policies are “to limit or prohibit the use by its pupils of smartphones while the pupils are at a schoolsite or while the pupils are under the supervision and control of an employee or employees of that school district, county office of education, or charter school.”

Each policy must also be updated every five years.

The law makes exceptions, such as allowing students to use cell phones during emergencies or when there is a perceived threat. It builds on a 2019 law that gave school districts the authority to regulate smartphone use, but the new law is more comprehensive.

The bill states the goal of the policies being “to promote evidence-based use of smartphone practices to support pupil learning and well-being.”

Research supports the legislation. A Pew Research Center survey revealed that 72 percent of high school teachers and 33 percent of middle school teachers view cell phones as a significant distraction. Additionally, Common Sense Media found that 97 percent of students admitted to using their phones during school hours, with usage averaging 43 minutes per day.

Global evidence further validates the need for such policies. A study from the London School of Economics found that schools that banned phones saw a 6 percent improvement in test scores, with the most significant gains among lower-performing students. AB 3216 also cites national school cell phone bans in France and Spain over the past decade.

Similarly, a Rutgers University study found that students who used their phones during lectures performed worse on exams, and even students who did not use their phones but were in classrooms where phone use was allowed experienced lower test scores (Rutgers study). This suggests that the mere presence of phones in a classroom disrupts the learning environment for everyone.

A University of Nebraska study found that students admitted to checking their phones an average of 11 times per day during class, contributing to a significant reduction in attention and engagement. The survey of 675 students across 26 states revealed that nearly 20 percent of classroom time is spent on non-class-related activities, such as texting, browsing social media, and playing games. Over 80 percent of respondents admitted that their digital habits negatively impacted their learning, yet many found it difficult to change their behavior.

By restricting cell phone use, Gov. Newsom said California aims to create an environment that prioritizes student learning and well-being, free from the interruptions of smartphones and social media.

The state’s push for stricter cell phone regulations in schools has been in the works for years. In 2019, Newsom signed Assembly Bill 272, which gave districts the authority to regulate smartphone use during school hours. However, rising concerns about student mental health and academic performance prompted further action, culminating in the passage of Assembly Bill 3216.

While state schools superintendent Tony Thurman, the California Teachers Association and Los Angles Unified School District — which approved its own ban over the summer — supported AB 3216, the California School Boards Association opposed it.

“This bill limits the decision-making authority of the governing board as they would now have to adopt a policy, even if, through local community meetings, it was found that there was no need to limit/prohibit the usage,” CSBA wrote in opposition. “These decisions are best made at the local level by people who understand, reside, are invested in, and accountable to the communities they serve.”

According to Education Week, the other states with policy laws similar to California are Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio, and Virginia. States with school board resolutions or laws recommending school district policies are Alabama, Connecticut, Oklahoma and Washington. States incentivizing pilot programs are Arkansas, Delaware and Pennsylvania. Arizona state schools chief Tom Horne last month called for legislation to ban student cell phones.

Read more on student cellphone bans nationwide and their implication on the school bus ride in the October magazine edition.

Related: Florida Board Upholds Cell Phone Ban Aboard School Buses
Related: Unhealthy Distractions
Related: Alabama Considering Bill to Ban School Bus Drivers’ Cell Phone Use

The post California Student Cell Phone Ban Legislation Signed into Law appeared first on School Transportation News.

The concept of school buses as an extension of the classroom is not new. However, being onboard the yellow school bus also presents unique challenges for drivers, as they manage not only the safety of the students they’re transporting but their own safety behind the wheel.

School Transportation News asked members of several Facebook school bus driver groups what practices or training they felt would increase overall safety onboard the school bus this school year. The responses were split between technological solutions such as using GPS, stop-arm cameras and air conditioning to receiving more administration support, especially when handling student behavior and providing bus aides.

Cynthia Rubio, director of student transportation at KIPP Texas, a charter school network with campuses in Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio that contracts with First Student for school bus services, stressed the importance of furthering driver safety through strong relationships with partner vendors. Rubio collaborated with Chris Olds, district manager for First Student, in responding to questions for this article.

“We have fully embraced onboard technologies that enhance safety and surround our students with care. Combining safety and care is our mindset, one that’s shared by our transportation partners, First Student,” said Rubio.

Meanwhile, Sharon Hipps oversees a fleet of 71 buses with 54 drivers for White County School Systems in rural northeastern Georgia. The director of transportation explained how the different parts of technology on the school bus at her district help to advance safety. First on the list is illuminated school bus signs on the front and rear of the bus, to increase visibility.

Drivers in the Facebook groups also commented that in addition to the illuminated signs, they want to have more stop-arms with cameras to catch incidents of illegal passing.

Hipps said another new addition has been a navigation system, which one driver in a Facebook group said he believed should be common onboard buses. “GPS/ navigation screens for us trip drivers and at the very least a dash indicator showing what direction you’re going as North, South, East, West. Standard on cars forever now. Still absent from buses,” he added.

Back in Texas, Rubio explained how First Student driver tablets not only provide turn by turn navigation but also re-route if traffic or a safety hazard is ahead, ensuring drivers are on the safest and most efficient route. The tablets also take the drivers through a post-trip inspection, which includes a child search feature to make sure no students are left on board after route completion. Several of these incidents have already been reported nationwide this school year.

One driver group member commented, “Once I leave the immediate district, I usually only have five miles before communicating with base or even other drivers close to me becomes impossible. There is simple mode on the radios, but some are convoluted to switch back and forth on. I would say, however, that having conventional radio as a backup probably would be a good practice. As far as safety goes… communication can sometimes mean lifesaving minutes saved.”

Rubio said that the importance of radio communication is often overlooked. “When drivers use their two-way radio to call in to base and report anything during a trip, dispatchers use (chat app) GroupMe as a way to communicate to multiple stakeholders. Through this quick and efficient method, we are able to raise awareness of unsafe events related to traffic or student conduct,” she explained. “This helps our schools address concerns as soon as possible. This helps drivers feel supported and gives First Student visibility in all action items taken by the school to address and amend any concerns.”

Many of the comments in the driver groups mentioned cameras as an important tool for driver safety. Hipps said White County Schools in Georgia uses video footage to “review video of driving habits and student behavior that is not typically seen while doing your route due to drivers focusing on the road and bus stop safety.”

This kind of footage review can lead to the overall safety that drivers need, as voiced by a former school bus driver on Facebook. “Support from the school administration so that students learn there are rules that must be followed for everyone’s safety,” the driver added. “If we get less distractions from the students, we can keep our complete focus on the road and the other drivers. Luckily, I have that support from the schools I drove for.”

Hipps said it is important that transportation leaders support their drivers. “We provide them the tools and support needed when dealing with student management. You are the liaison between the student, parent, administration and the bus driver,” she added. “This helps with communication and shows your employee you are there to assist them and their peace of mind to follow through.”

Student behavior is an ever-present challenge that drivers face, Rubio noted. “Safety begins with training,” she said

KIPP Texas drivers use the First Student FirstServes program, which is designed to reduce onboard behavioral incidents by using positive interventions and prevention/de-escalation techniques.

“Each driver and attendant receives hands-on training from education and transportation safety experts through an extensive curriculum, equipping them with the tools to provide a safer and improved experience for students,” continued Rubio. “These resources are designed to prevent or, if necessary, resolve incidents on the bus.”

Keeping technology partners in the loop regarding drivers’ needs is also top priority for Rubio, who said she holds weekly meetings with her team and First Student to give feedback, ask questions, find solutions and discuss points that need attention.

Rubio noted that the First Student Driver Scoring program allows for detailed documentation of driving habits, which in turn leads to opportunities for coaching and improvement. By tracking hard braking, rapid acceleration, speeding, and idling, transportation leadership or local managers can offer training specific to their driver’s needs.

“The technology has strengthened our safety culture, and the Driver Score program creates some healthy competition between drivers to up the ante with safety. We have drivers actively seeking out coaching because they want to be the best, they want to have the best score,” she said.

Sean McCormack, the chief information officer at First Student, commended the dedication of KIPP Texas on transportation safety. “Our technology and tools help drivers get where they’re going, do so safely, and improve their performance over time so that students arrive at school ready to learn and return home safe at the end of the school day,” he said. “We innovate to expand the possibilities for safe, clean and reliable transportation and we are lucky to have partners in KIPP who embrace technology, driver training and other tools to strengthen safety culture.”

A recurring theme from the over 200 comments gathered in the Facebook driver groups was the need for school administrators to recognize the necessary multi-tasking drivers perform each day as well as technology that can track the other safety issues, such as motorists illegally passing the buses and student behavior that could affect the safety of all passengers onboard the bus, including the driver.

“The administration [has] to stop looking at what the driver [is] doing and look at the situation and see what caused the problem,” said one Facebook commenter. “The driver has more to deal with other than the kids, traffic [and] other drivers.”

Editor’s Note: As reprinted in the September 2024 issue of School Transportation News.

Related: NTSB Addresses Back to School Safety in Recent Webinar
Related: STN EXPO Panel Discusses Trends in School Bus Safety Technology
Related: (STN Podcast E213) Onsite at STN EXPO Indy: Driver Shortage & School Bus Safety Convos
Related: School Bus Driver Creates Children’s Book to Promote School Bus Safety

The post What Do School Bus Drivers Want to Increase Safety? appeared first on School Transportation News.

Transportation directors deal with a lot as leaders in our industry. Depending on the size and makeup of the school districts they operate, they encounter complex operational challenges, difficult decisions, managing teams, and stress, too. It’s all about people in our industry.

“Student success, teamwork, culture, communication are all words I think about every day when I come to work,” said Jennifer Vobis, executive director of transportation at Clark County School District in Nevada. “You must be able to think on your feet and wear multiple hats as a transportation director. School transportation is an interdependent system that impacts the entire district. Decisions we make in transportation will directly affect other departments in the district.”

The Transportation Director Summit at STN EXPO in Reno last month was the site of insightful conversations and interactions. Over 170 transportation directors and vendor partner representatives discussed various topics impacting operations, including safety and security, green energy, driver performance, and talent recruitment and retention.

I led the day-one group discussion by sharing the results of a survey of 112 transportation directors and industry leaders that was required for their participation.

“What current challenges are you trying to solve with technology and services?” The top five answers: Improve driver safety and performance; driver retention; operational efficiency; better parent communications; and student behavior (bullying and assault).

Then, I asked the 24 tables of industry stakeholders to address and unpack this: “Share your biggest challenge for the next school year.”

“One of my biggest challenges is around staffing. Our operation in Philadelphia is a mixed district fleet and contracted services fleet,” shared Teresa Fleming, deputy chief operations officer at The School District of Philadelphia. “There is always a possibility that our school bus contractors might over allocate their driver capacity. This can impact the services we offer to our students. Our in-house operations have been successful to help mitigate our driver shortages with robust onboarding, retention, paid training programs and full-time employment opportunities.”

On day two of the TD Summit, executive leadership and keynote speaker Christine Cashen shared with the audience the most effective ways to communicate with their teams. As our Client Services and Digital Media Coordinator Claudia Newton reported on site, Cashen acknowledged that every person has different upbringings, experiences and styles of handling conflict. Using her formula of “Situation + Response = Outcome,” she advised focusing on the response because that’s where the power is. “Say what you mean, mean what you say, and don’t be mean when you say it,” she quipped.

She revealed there are four major types of people: Laid-back, people-pleasing “Who people;” flexible, creative “Why people;” focused, no-nonsense “What people;” and detail-oriented, conscientious “How people.” You need all types of people for a team, Cashen said.

A positive workplace culture is crucial for a good trickle-down effect so that transportation staff and school bus drivers are ready to be the first school representative many students see each day. “You want to avoid mood poisoning,” Cashen said, referring to employees with negative attitudes. “Some hard conversations need to be had.”

For effective, non-emotional communication with a team member about a recurring problem or attitude, she advised stating how you feel and why. Use “I” language, closing with an appreciation and request for the other party, and including a consequence, if necessary.

If the conversation becomes argumentative, telling the person, “You might be right,” gets them to view your side favorably or at least placates them enough to avoid a negative confrontation. Likewise, saying “I see things differently” is a more collaborative phrase than “I disagree.”

“Conflict doesn’t always have to be negative,” Cashen summed up. “It can also be a positive [and] bring everyone together, and make them feel heard.”

After each TD Summit concludes, I always get feedback from attendees. “The Transportation Director Summit always provides valuable interaction with peers regardless of the size of the district I am speaking with,” shared Vobis. “I love brainstorming at the interactive tables about our challenges. My goal is to gain knowledge, develop innovative ideas and solutions that I can implement. I always walk away with great ways to improve the Clark County transportation department.”

Our transportation directors are working hard for everyone to be successful. Let’s be sure to give them grace and a pat on the back for the inspiration they provide every day. Bravo!

Editor’s Note: As reprinted in the August 2024 issue of School Transportation News.

Related: Gallery: Unique Classes, TD Summit on Day 2 of STN EXPO Reno
Related: STN EXPO Reno Keynote Speaker Uncovers How to Flip the Script and Stay Inspired
Related: Communication ‘Magic Words,’ Teamwork Tips Shared at Transportation Director Summit
Related: STN EXPO Reno Keynote Speaker Brings Message of Positivity

The post Inside a Transportation Director’s Mind appeared first on School Transportation News.