EDITORIAL DESK Te Saturday before starting production on this issue, I sat with my wife in the shade of a local
park watching my son compete in a soccer tournament (his team came in second and he scored a goal). I had just walked back to my seat after playing with my youngest daughter on one of the jungle gyms, when my wife introduced me to another parent in attendance who scheduled the buses for the special needs students in our school district. After quickly explaining my position with the magazine, we started talking about the issues she was having with a contractor, the complaints she would hear about late buses and how she was worried about the upcoming school year and the affect the district’s dwindling budget would have on her operations. Soon, one of the other parents, who remembered riding the bus when he was in middle school,
An Afternoon in the Park
By Stephane Babcock
joined the conversation. Te dynamics of the conversation were like a round table discussion: there was the person in the trenches, the parent who doesn’t understand how school buses can be late and myself, the objective piece of the equation who knows both sides of the issue but doesn’t side with either position. I understood where the school bus employee was coming from and how a contractor with good
intentions but poor execution could negatively affect how the school buses ran on a daily basis, especially when her special needs students totaled more than 5,000. She complained of late buses, absent drivers and too many routes to cover with no back-up plan in place for mornings when one piece of the puzzle was missing. And I understood the frustrations of the parent — the worry of sending his young son on a bus
with little supervision and no seat belts, the affect a late bus could have on him getting to work on time and the possibility of service being cut for his son within the next few months. But in those same moments where information — or lack thereof — can skew opinions and re-
actions, understanding can also be bred. When the conversation is less heated and reason doesn’t take a back seat to emotion, the parties involved can come to a better understanding of the cards each side has been dealt. Tis is when understanding can evolve into a working relationship, one that can solve problems instead of create them. Tere is an enormous amount of passion behind every issue that revolves around the school bus,
whether it be the push to go green, the campaign to increase ridership and federal recognition, or the struggle to expand awareness of the danger zone. Te passion lies behind the wheel, behind the desk and in the heart of every member of this industry. But there are other factions in these plights. Tere are the school administrators that either support their transportation departments because they understand the school bus’ place in the educational process or those that fail to because of a lack of understanding. Tere are the parents that are involved in their children’s lives every step of the way, including those onto and off the school bus. Tese are the people that need to see the ben- efits spelled out in plain black and white. No matter how many times the industry knocks on the doors of legislators, no matter how many political hands they shake, the foundation of this country, the people whose children either depend on the bus or those who depend on the job opportunities it can provide, they are what drives change. Call me idealistic, I don’t mind — it has been idealism that has led to some of our greatest ac-
complishments — but I am not naive. I have seen how opinions can move mountains and emotions can create great friendships or bitter rivalries (I get daily reports from my sons on both outcomes, which are daily occurrences on an elementary school playground). I know I’ve said this before — and it is not for a lack of what to write — but the industry needs to look at the small steps in this big process and take any opportunity to create an ally in the battle to increase the public’s under- standing that the school bus is one of the most valuable commodities in the educational process, a commodity that could become a rarity without an effort at every level of this great industry. n
98 School Transportation News Magazine July 2010
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