SPECIAL REPORT


“We want to do what is best for the students, not what is best for the driver or attendant. If they can’t get a child out of the bus as a driver, then they certainly can’t do it as


an attendant, either.” -Launi Harden, Student Transportation Consultant


Another way that Harden managed the monitors and drivers to the best advantage was to offer monitor positions to driver trainees. “Since it takes weeks to get a CDL, if a trainee had another job and couldn’t afford to quit during driver training, the time to get their CDL might be even longer. By offering them a job as an attendant and training them to drive in between shifts, it was a benefit to them and the department,” she recalled. “They learn a lot being out on routes without actually being behind the wheel. Once in a while, my department would have a person who had signed on to train as a driver who wanted to stay as an attendant, and that was fine. I felt that we retained more employ- ees that way. Not everyone is cut out to be a driver. And on the flip side of that coin, there are attendants who see what the drivers do and want to drive instead of ride.” However, when a driver didn’t pass a fit-for-duty


test, Harden did not allow that driver to just step into an attendant position. “I felt it was wrong to do that,”


30 School Transportation News • JULY 2023


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