October 18-22nd is School Bus Safety awareness week. To commemorate this, elementary students across the district will participate in bus evacuation drills, which will give them the practice they need to get off the bus safely and timely in the event of an emergency.

In addition to safety, there are also many challenges and rewards that come with being a school bus driver, and most don’t know what the job actually consists of.

I did a ride-along and interview with Tami Wooldridge, the bus driver of Bus 16, who has one of the longest routes.

Tami has been a bus driver for 11 years, but before becoming a bus driver she was a manager of a gas station. She said she was very hesitant to become a bus driver, “I was like, there is no way I can drive a school bus, but there is a lot of good training and they taught me everything I need to know. I can even parallel park this bus.”

As stated before, there are many rewards that come with being a bus driver. Wooldridge says her favorite part of being a bus driver is simply being around the kids and getting to build relationships with them. “The good kids are simply good kids, but even the disrespectful ones have a special place in my heart. Even if they’re disrespectful, they have good hearts. Showing respect to them, even when they don’t respect you can also really make a difference for them.” She then told me about how that morning one kid gave her a card and a $25 gift card to Hobby Lobby. She said the only real downside is waking up early.

Wooldridge then told me the story about her most memorable experience of being a bus driver. “One year around Christmas time, I pulled up to pick up these two kids, and they had found these floor tiles, and written on them with a magic marker was, “We love you Ms. Tami.”

Below is a time lapse of Tami Wooldridge’s PM bus route.