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n August 2017, during Mark McK- inney’s first year as transportation director of the Santa Fe Inde- pendent School District located


between Houston and Galveston, Tex- as, Hurricane Harvey devastated the area, leaving many of his drivers’ and students’ families homeless. The next year, a deadly shooting occurred at the local high school.


During both disasters, school buses


played a crucial role evacuating res- idents and students, even as drivers themselves were dealing with the trauma and terror of the situations. As McKinney, his staff and the


larger school community were re- covering from those tragedies, more crises arose, including COVID-19 and the record-breaking winter storm from this past March. In a region where snow and ice are rare, roads became dangerous and power was out. The transportation department’s large diesel generator, however, al- lowed it to serve as a warming center for employees and neighbors. “I haven’t had a normal year [on the


job],” McKinney said. School transportation providers and districts are increasingly dealing with hurricanes, floods, wildfires, tornadoes and other natural disasters. Meanwhile, threats of violence, social unrest, terrorism and future pandem- ics are also growing concerns. McKinney and others say it is


impossible to predict or perfectly prepare for every possible scenario— not to mention the rare but serious bus crashes. But training, vigilance, planning, and a sense of mission and unity can go far in helping school transportation providers protect their students and their bus fleet and help the larger community in trying times. “No two situations are ever alike, but


if you start with a set of principles and operating protocols, you’re not trying to invent something out of whole cloth every time,” McKinney noted. “It’s about staying engaged, talking about scenarios, drilling for it. We talk about cold weather, we talk about floods. We have people do fire extinguishing on real fires [as training]. We have a fog machine and [use it to] teach how to evacuate a smoke-filled bus.” When reports came in of the active shooter at Santa Fe High School on May 18, 2018, high school and junior high students had just been dropped off and elementary school students were still on buses. McKinney said the buses with elementary school students sheltered in place until more information became available, then they dropped off those students and assembled behind the high school to help evacuate terrified students and staff. Making decisions on the fly was key in a tumultuous atmosphere with multiple local, state and federal law enforcement agencies taking jurisdic- tion. McKinney remembers making a U-turn in his bus on an empty five-lane highway to pick up students walking along the road. The incident drove home the


necessity of preparing for an active shooter incident on a school bus, something the department has prioritized. McKinney noted that after Hur-


ricane Harvey, some bus drivers moved out of the area because their homes were destroyed. After the shooting, they volunteered to come back and “sleep on someone’s couch” to help. Similarly, whenever he has sought volunteers to help with crises, drivers and former drivers are there, even as their own families are being affected.


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