Christopher Walls Director of Transportation | Kansas City Public Schools in Missouri
Christopher Walls started as the director of transportation
for Kansas City Public Schools the same year COVID-19 took its toll on education. The district has a hybrid transportation model, contracting out transportation services to Student Transportation of America as well as a local cab company while also utilizing district-owned Type A buses and a white fleet of vehicles. The district transports 800 McKinney-Vento Home- less Assistance Act students as well as students to eight signature schools, a career and tech center and an interna- tional welcome center. “Chris is calm, positive and ap-
proachable for our building leaders and families,” Linda Quinley, the district’s chief finan- cial and operations officer, said in her nomination. “He works to meet needs of special needs students in the most appropriate and comfortable manner.”
Dustin Ireland Transportation Manager | Cyr Bus Lines in Maine
Dustin Ireland was born into the pupil transportation
industry, as his mother has been a school bus driver since 1985. “I’ve been on buses, even before I was born,” he corrected, adding that he started driv- ing vans and serving as a bus monitor at the district when he was 18. “I’ve been driving a school bus since I was 21, just about 15 years ago,” he said. He currently serves as the manager for Cyr Bus in Hampden, Maine and orga- nizes all the busing needs for the RSU 22 school district, which includes home- to-school runs as well as sports and field trips. He also drives his own home-to- school route. “At this point, I’ve been working in
student transportation for half of my life, right around 18 years,” he said. “It seems like I’ll be doing this sort of thing all my life, and I don’t have any plans on moving on from where I’m at right now.” He became a first-time manager of RSU 22 before COVID-19 hit. During his time, he helped with his regular
route and with office manager duties. “His willingness to work on new plans for transportation meals to students on remote learning, to facilitate hybrid learning student bus runs, organize masking protocols and keep our bus runs staffed with creative shifts, has been amazing (not to mention as a novice manager),” Regan Nickels, superintendent of schools for RSU 22, said in nominating Ireland. Nickels added that transportation nev-
er shut down during COVID-19, and the district has had minimal route cancel- ations the past two years. “My hat is off to Dustin because he has
kept his cool, remained open minded and has endured critique of his depart- ment as any school-based leaders and
educators have during this pandemic,” Nickels added. “He continues to serve students steadily and address- es the needs of his employees reliably. He is learning through trail by fire—through the hardest of times—to be a well-rounded leader.”
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Walls is going on his 10th year in transportation, starting in 2011 as the director of transportation for Indianapolis Public Schools. Prior to that he served in the U.S. Army for 12 years with the 101st Airborne Division transportation company. He still serves in the National Guard, as a chaplain to help soldiers and their families with any needs that arise related to spiritual health, physical health, marriage and family or mental health needs. Before joining KCPS, he was the executive director for the School Bus Safety Company. Walls said he loves what he does, and going
forward he hopes to continue to be in an op- erations support role, like he does now. “KCPS is a special place to work, we have great people
who work together well toward a common goal, and it makes it a joy to come to work every day,” he said, adding that he wouldn’t be where he is today without the support of his wife Kristin and their five children.
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