While Caitlyn Morris, who was a student at Long Cane Elementary, accepted the third-place winning poster award last year, her work is still being displayed as transportation employees across the nation celebrate National School Bus Safety Week. Troup County School System (TCSS) joins them in highlighting this year’s theme, “My School Bus, The Safest Form of Student Transportation.”

“I was happy and excited to win,” Morris said. “It felt good.” 

This nationally recognized week is used to promote school bus safety to students, parents, faculty and the community. The Board of Education just adopted a resolution noting the importance of the week.    

“School bus driving is an incredibly challenging, yet rewarding, job,” Transportation Director Dr. Jeff Turner said. “The term school bus driver is not sufficient enough to describe the profession and its duties.

“Successfully operating the bus requires a complex mix of knowledge, skills, and attitudes that go well beyond just “driving” and maneuvering the school bus.”

He said this week is an opportunity to celebrate and put emphasis on the safe transportation of the students. In addition to the driver’s and monitors receiving appreciation T-shirts on Monday, each school will recognize them as students are dropped off throughout the week.

“When someone signs up to become a bus driver, we train them during a four-week paid training where they learn safety rules, drive with a seasoned bus driver, and earn their CDL license,” Turner said. “This past year, our technicians in the bus shop worked hard to receive a 100 percent first time pass rate during their most recent annual inspection of the bus fleet.”

The school system employs approximately 250 transportation employees; including bus drivers, monitors, maintenance shop personnel and administration. These employees run 131 routes throughout the county and transport roughly 8,000 students over 2.2 million miles per school year.