✪ Michael Warner


Associate Director of Fleet Maintenance Cobb County School District in Georgia Fleet Maintained: 1,100 school buses & 425 support vehicles Total Shop Staff: 48 technicians & 7 office staff


Most challenging maintenance problem to date?


“While not exactly a maintenance problem, it’s been the budget. Especially over the past couple of years with the steady increase in parts prices.”


Michael Warner has been involved in commercial


vehicle maintenance since the late 1980s. At his previ- ous trucking company in 2007, there were school bus technicians working part time fueling trucks. Warner said after talking with them, he was informed of an open position with Cobb County School District, which he accepted 15 years ago. “I enjoy my job within the pupil transportation in-


dustry,” Warner said. “I have been involved in the medium- to heavy-duty vehicle maintenance for over 35 years and school buses are far more challenging, mostly because of all the safety equipment and the cargo that these buses transport. I have found myself very involved in the transportation side of the business and assisting where I can. But fleet maintenance is still in my blood, and [I] just can’t get away from it.” Warner has been an innovative force within the indus-


try, said Rick Grisham, the director of transportation for Richland One School District in South Carolina. Grisham served as director of transportation at Cobb County for


13 of Warner’s years at the Georgia district. Cobb County was reportedly one of the first districts in the country to implement stop-arm cameras on school buses and one of the first districts to deploy gasoline engines as an “alternative” fuel to diesel. Grishan said that Warner manages the GPS and Enhanced Push-to- Talk program and was recognized as a model program for annual bus inspections. “Michael does many op- erational functions outside of his fleet duties and is a vital player on the management team at Cobb,” Grisham noted, adding that Warner has been a speaker at the Georgia Association of Pupil Transportation conference and served on an STN EXPO Reno panel on alternative fuels as well as at the TSD Conference speaking about fire suppression systems for special needs routes. He currently serves on the NAPT America’s Best Committee and supported the state and local technician competi- tions as well. “He is highly respected in the industry and honestly


past due of this distinguished recognition,” Grisham added. Warner said a current challenge coming out of the pan-


demic has been the lack of applicants for open positions. He noted that Cobb County is currently short four em- ployees in the garage. “Like every other district, we have driver vacancies, technician openings, and even a couple of vacant positions in our body shop,” he noted. “We have been posting on our district website, signage at the schools, banners, magnets on support vehicles, postings on employment websites and word of mouth. Fortunately, we haven’t had a problem with our technicians leaving. Our salary and benefits package is a little above the aver- age and with a nice pay increase this year, it helps.” He added that while the district is look-


ing at EV buses, he knows there is a lot of research and planning that will need to take place. “It’s coming but we must do our due diligence before committing to such a different way of transporting students,” he said, adding that the entire department is completely paperless, from the driver writing up a defect to technicians docu- menting the repairs to performing safety inspections. Outside of working 50-plus hours per


week, Warner said he enjoys camping and being outside as well as gardening. He also started golfing several years ago. Warner has three children and two grandchildren that also keep him very busy.


Cobb Couty School District technician John Griffin (left) and Michael Warner diagnose a maintenance issue on a school bus.


38 School Transportation News • AUGUST 2022


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