In order to be a school bus driver, it requires a lot of patience, a lot of skill and a lot of perfecting techniques that the average driver doesn’t need to consider. Bus drivers hired to work for the Owensboro Public Schools are required to spend 33 hours in the classroom, 12 hours driving and complete a prepared skills course — all with a score of above 80 percent.
On Tuesday morning, five newly-hired drivers maneuvered their 25,000-pound vehicles around bright orange cones and neon green tennis balls in the final component of their training.
Alice Thompson has been a school bus driver for the past 25 years, and a trainer for the last 20. Thompson described each maneuver in detail, from weaving through the serpentine-shaped cones to coming into an off-set alley to navigating through a diminishing clearance.
“Probably the hardest part of the whole thing is the tennis balls,” Thompson said. “That is the width of the dual tires, plus three inches — like 27 inches they have to drive through there.”
Thompson said drivers will then approach the stop line, practice student loading and how to react to a railroad crossing before completing the training by backing up through the cones, all with a driver trainer onboard.
At ages 21 and 26, Jeremiah Pye and Edie Render are two of the youngest drivers in the OPS district.
Render, who was hired in October, said she comes from a long line of bus and truck drivers, so driving came naturally to her.
“I was going to back to school to be a teacher,” Render said. “My dad was a truck driver and didn’t want me going on the road, so the next best thing is this. I love it — at least I get to do a job I enjoy and have great benefits.”
Pye was hired right behind Render in December and, at 21 years of age, said the children in the school district make the job even more rewarding.
“I love kids,” Pye said. “You can’t have this job if you’re not going to love kids.”
