Prior to transitioning into the public sector of pupil transportation, Valerie Williams spent 20 years in corporate human resources management and customer service for the Austin (Texas) Police De- partment, Dell Inc., Westinghouse Motor Company, Bank of the Hills, and LaPetite Academy. She said her pupil transportation career started in
November 2011 as a crossing guard for Parkside Elemen- tary School. She said at the time she owned her own wedding planning business and needed some extra cash for a vacation to New York. Her husband, Terry, is a school bus driver, trainer and third-party examiner for Leander ISD transportation. He was the one who suggested that she try being school bus driver. “But the bus is too big for me so in February of 2012, I joined the team as a bus monitor, which is what we were called back in those days,” she shared, adding that during this time she assisted the special needs router with processing the legal transportation documents. In June 2015, she was hired as the part-time routing assistant to replace a retiring employee. “In that role, I had the privilege of working side by side with Tracie Franco, the full-time special needs router at
that time and now the senior director of Leander ISD trans-
portation,” Williams said, adding that over the years she transitioned from part-time to full time and progressed to senior router.
Marty Marks started in the school transportation industry in 2005, when he became a school bus driver for his children’s school events. He started driving part- time for Neosho School District as well as an activity trip driver for four years. Marks then moved over
250 miles to St. Louis for 10 years, where
he worked for First Student as a safety manager, later becoming a location manager. In 2019, he moved back to Neosho to serve as the director of transportation, a role he’s held since.
Marty Marks | Director of Transportation Neosho School District, Missouri “Every day is a new day.”
52 School Transportation News • NOVEMBER 2024
Valerie Williams | Senior Router, Systems Logistics Leander Independent School District, Texas “With God all things are possible.” |“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
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