Jacqueline Hayes was working in district Jacqueline Hayes |
Deputy Director of Transportation Boston Public Schools, Massachusetts
administration for six years, when she started looking for a new position with interesting challenges. “A friend introduced me to the then director of transportation, Delavern Stanislaus,” recalled Hayes, who is now going on her third year in transportation. “Del convinced me there would be lots of interesting work in transportation. She was 100 percent correct.” Jessica Wang, an associate with electric school bus advocate World Resources Institute, said, “Jackie is truly a visionary leader in the school transportation sector and has made outstanding contributions that positively impact the everyday lives of students, drivers, and staff at Boston Public Schools, and the community at large.” Over the past year, Hayes has contributed
to the launch of the largest electric school bus deployment in the northeast. “Within nine months from the initial conversations, Jackie and her team had 20 electric school buses ready in their bus yard, the infrastructure built out, and drivers, mechanics, and first responders all trained,” Wang added. The district currently has another 19 ESBs on order and recently submitted an EPA Clean School Bus competitive grant applicatiion for another 50 electric buses. BPS has a goal to convert its entire fleet of 750 buses fully to electric by 2030. “She fondly refers to them as her bus babies, demonstrating her unwavering dedication, strategic planning, and importantly, extraordinary ability to motivate and inspire her team,” Wang said. “I’ve witnessed first-hand how she fosters a culture of innovation, teamwork and continuous improvement, empowering her staff to think creatively and strive for excellence. She has set a remarkable precedent for school bus electrification and sustainability and has
demonstrated what is possible and how it can be done.” Hayes said BPS will transport more than
20,000 students this school year on 3,208 trips across 632 school buses. She said the work will be supported by 740 school bus drivers, 700 bus monitors and many other teammates in transportation. “Our biggest challenge over the last two years was hiring both drivers by our vendor and bus monitors,” Hayes shared. “We have done a lot of work to be in a strong position going into this school year, including renegotiating our labor agreements to increase pay and benefits. Just as important, we have worked with our yellow bus vendor to build out a full school bus and CDL training program. Over time, over 135 new drivers have been trained, certified, and now hold CDL licenses. They are now able to drive buses for Boston Public Schools. We are going into the school year full staffed. We are hopeful we can hold onto these gains.” This school year, her department is selecting and deploying new routing software and on-the- bus tablets. “Jackie
continues to be an inspiration and wealth of knowledge to the school transportation sector at large,” Wang continued, adding that Hayes serves as one of WRI’s electric school bus ambassadors. “She is attending pupil transportation conferences and events, presenting at webinars on school bus electrification, and even bringing BPS’ electric school buses to events to share the technology, her knowledge and expertise. She is truly a tireless advocate and champion for adopting cleaner, healthier and more sustainable transportation solutions.” Hayes added that her favorite part of the job is working with teams to figure out solutions to the challenges in transportation.
40 School Transportation News • OCTOBER 2023
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