News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Angie Gardinier heads up the Sisters School District Transportation Department. Photo by Jim Cornelius
Getting Sisters school children to school safely and on time every morning requires serious dedication from the school district's bus drivers.
There are nine regular morning and afternoon routes in the district -- and only nine drivers to cover them. Drivers also cover three mid-day kindergarten routes, take kids to SOAR and tutoring services and handle field trips and sports road trips.
And with school budgets trimmed down to the bone, those drivers must work as efficiently as possible, planning routes carefully and always paying attention to the pressure on the throttle.
"I monitor miles per gallon on a monthly basis," said new Transportation Supervisor Angie Gardinier.
Gardinier is no stranger to the challenges of getting the job done with a skeleton staff.
"I've been driving (in Sisters) for 18 years and I don't know that there's ever been a sense of comfort that we have enough drivers," she said.
Drivers need a Commercial Driver's License. They take three Department of Motor Vehicles tests, a physical exam, undergo fingerprinting and a background and driving record check. Then they get intensive, hands-on training.
The job pays pretty well -- $10.71 to start and $14.01 at the top of the scale. A full-time route is considered 3.5 to 4 hours and drivers pick up extra time with the field trips and sports trips.
But the hours are deceiving. A driver may have to report at 6:26 a.m. for a morning route that concludes at 8 a.m. then she'll come back at 9:40 a.m. for a kindergarten route that ends at 11:40 a.m., then return yet again at 2:20 p.m. to run an afternoon route.
"It's a long day with not a lot of hours," Gardinier said.
Then, too, the job entails tremendous responsibility. The drivers are entrusted with the lives and safety of their community's children. Not everyone can handle that burden.
The skeleton staffing means that drivers can't afford to get sick and they must step up when work needs to get done -- even if they've already done their fair share.
According to Gardinier, that's exactly what the drivers do -- and willingly. The tight-knit group has a lot of esprit de corps.
"I've seen everybody pull together as a group," Gardinier said. "It's always been that way.'
For all the challenges, Gardinier says, the job offers great rewards.
"I think it's a really good job," she said. "For somebody who likes to drive and enjoys children, it can be a very rewarding job."
The Sisters School District has a fleet of 14 buses. Nine are regular route buses and the other five are used for special trips and additional transport -- or backup.
The district has maintained a replacement cycle in the past several years and maintenance and repairs are kept up to date to keep long-term costs down.
Gardinier cited the work of mechanic Gene O'Brien to provide effective maintenance at the lowest possible cost.
However, she emphasized, cost is not the primary consideration in maintaining the district's bus fleet.
"Safety is the biggest issue," she said. "We always make sure things are safe before we go to consideration of the dollar."
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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