Dennis Duval | Transportation Manager | Hillsboro (North Dakota) Public Schools


Nestled between the sizeable cities of Fargo and Grand Forks in North Dakota, the small town of Hillsboro houses 1,600 residents and is proud of its rural charm. Tough small, every one of the


town’s buses owned by the Hillsboro Public School District is meticulously maintained by Dennis Duval, head of transpor- tation and grounds. Te bus barn is where he works on the district’s 13 school buses that transport 200 kids to and from school every day. He manages the drivers and even drives a route himself, enjoying his time working with the kids. No bus goes out onto the road that Duval doesn’t inspect and


repair himself to make it as safe as possible. “Between routes you can find Dennis elbow deep in grease working on the fleet to keep it safe and road ready,” recounts Dale Priebe, operations manager for local dealer Trucks of Bismarck, Inc.


But it’s not just his own fleet that Duval manages with such


precision; he also lends neighboring districts a hand with main- tenance and repair of their school buses. Tough these nearby schools are often reluctant to hire more maintenance staff or even pay for extra repairs, Duval insists on carrying out all the needed bus repairs as his stated main concern is the “safety of our buses for transportation.” Duval’s commitment to the safety of school kids was wit-


nessed firsthand by North Dakota Highway Patrol Troopers Tracy Buzick and Kyle Stern. Tey commend the near-perfect record Duval’s buses have in their annual inspections. Addi- tionally, he’s brought other nearby schools’ buses up to current standards. “Mechanical violations have decreased exponentially in these buses,” says Trooper Buzick, “as Dennis treats them with the same scrutiny he does his own.” As for Duval, it’s all about “overseeing everything, that every- thing gets done and is working, and we don’t have no failures.”


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