2016 STN Leadersip Award


Clark County School District is a super large urban, suburban and rural operation, encompassing more than 5,000 square miles, Evans says. This entails service in Las Vegas’ bedroom communities as well as regular routes into the local mountains and surrounding desert.


came first. He was a kind and calm role model in my life,” she added. “When I think about those that have influenced me the most, my dad is at the top of my list. I wish he could see my success today so I can share this award and great honor with him.” Her dad, who passed away nearly 10 years ago from lung


cancer, is surely proud. Evans is now in her 24th year at Clark County School Dis-


trict, all of them in transportation. Like many in the industry, she started as a school bus driver in 1993, but she took a much different path to the driver’s seat than her peers. Evans was trained to draw blood from patients as a phlebotomist for a local Las Vegas mobile laboratory unit that visited convalescent homes and rehabilitation centers. “It’s an important job, but it’s not as rewarding as trans-


portation because you don’t see an immediate return,” Evans said. “I decided to try something different. I had heard a lot of good things about the school district, their benefits package, and that they treated their employees really well. I figured, ‘Why not?’” After her second year of driving general and special ed- ucation routes, the district was implementing its first com- puterized routing program and verifying the two-mile walk boundary. One letter went out to all parents of bus riders


34School Transportation News • NOVEMBER 2016


explaining the new eligibility rules. Another letter went out to transportation employees as the department needed summer hires to answer phones and speak to parents about the changes. It wasn’t a job for the faint at heart. Needless to say, Evans jumped at the opportunity. Always an


interested sort, she had been looking for a way to learn more about behind-the-scenes office work. Plus, who could turn down the extra hours? “As a driver you have summers off but you also have to figure out some means of paying your bills and feeding your family,” she said. She interviewed and was hired. With her desk right outside


the director’s office, she had a front-row seat to the inner work- ings of student transportation. “For eight hours a day, I had to listen to parents’ concerns,


relate to those concerns, console them about their concerns, but at the end of the day explain to them that, ‘Tis is the policy, this is the regulation,’” she said. “As a parent, I under- stand your concern. However, due to fiscal constraints, this is the policy this is the procedure, and this is what we build our routes off of.” It was a defining experience for Evans, as she saw the larger implications of student transportation, how the support ser- vices truly impact families, how parents holding down two jobs or working the graveyard shift at a local casino relied on the school bus to get their kids to class every day. Tat’s when the


CELEBRATING25YEARS


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