by Mary Jo David

Many things stood out while interviewing school bus driver Meredith McManaman, but the most notable is that, in the life of a bus driver, every minute counts.

McManaman drives Bus 17-04, better known to younger kids in the Stockbridge School District as the “Lion” bus. She starts her day at 5 a.m. so she can be at the bus yard by 5:45. Once there, she has about 15 minutes to “pre-trip” her bus, checking the oil, the air brakes, tire pressure, and overhead lights. Pre-tripping helps ensure the bus is mechanically sound, fueled up, and ready for the route.

By 6:06, Bus 17-04 is on the road and headed for its first stop in its 60-mile route for students of the Jr./Sr. High School. After picking up this first wave of about 25 students, she’s headed to drop them off at school in plenty of time for the 7:15 unload time.

By 7:26, she is heading back out to pick up 56 or so of her Smith and Heritage students. Her last elementary student is picked up at 8:20, and they are at Heritage to unload by 8:33. Here is where the drop-off routine begins to take on the characteristics of a football play worthy of the big leagues. At Heritage, the eight buses are unloaded four buses at a time. The last drivers in each pack communicate with all other drivers to let them know when their last student has cleared the bus area so the buses can move out safely. Then, off to Smith they go. At Smith, Brenda Clear, as the most senior driver and the last bus of the eight, performs a block—meaning she positions her bus to make sure no other vehicles can get through the bus line while students unload at Smith.

McManaman has a second job working part time for Stockbridge Township. So immediately after returning to the bus lot in the morning, she heads off to work a three-hour shift at the township. That leaves her with about an hour and a half to herself in the afternoon before she has to return to the bus lot for her afternoon route.

Once again she pre-trips the bus and then heads over to the Jr./Sr. High School. At 2:22, she leaves the high school, and drops off the last of the Jr./Sr. High students at home by about 3 p.m. At that point, she may take the bus for fueling before heading over to the elementary schools to pick up her students for the ride home.

The afternoon elementary “play strategy” differs from the morning in that it calls for a more refined plan—one that allows extra time to make sure all students are accounted for. Occasionally parents have made other arrangements for pick-up or students have been given a pass to ride a different bus, so it’s imperative extra time is spent in the afternoon to make sure students are where they need to be. Once McManaman takes off with her bus loaded, her last elementary drop-off is at about 4:45 and she’s back at the bus lot by 5 p.m.

McManaman is one of Stockbridge’s newest bus drivers, but supervisor Nikki Clear says she has caught on quickly. In a district with very few substitute drivers, McManaman can be relied upon to take on more challenging routes when other drivers are out for the day. When this happens, a sub takes on McManaman’s easier route or her route gets split and merged with another route temporarily.

Stockbridge school bus drivers train for about six weeks to learn about pre-tripping and all the ins and outs and rules for driving a bus.

“The first time I drove the bus, I was 100% petrified,” McManaman exclaimed. “And that was when the bus was empty, and I was driving in a parking lot!”

She eventually figured out it wasn’t much different from driving a truck with a really huge steering wheel and hauling a trailer.

As the mom of a 12-year-old daughter, McManaman knows that kids go through all sorts of phases, and she readily admits that driving the bus is the easy part.

“Keeping track of what is going on inside the bus is the most challenging. It’s similar to a classroom but with 50-70 kids,” she said.

Her non-negotiable rule on the bus is that students must remain sitting in their seats and out of the aisles. In training, she learned students are safer in a school bus than in a passenger vehicle, but only if they remain seated correctly in their seats.

She encourages parents to reassure young students that it’s OK to feel a little nervous at first and the bus driver is there to keep them safe. As for older students, she’d like parents to remind them to be respectful of others.

“When I was younger and going into college, I wanted to be a teacher. I love working with kids and I think I have a good way with them,” she said.

To McManaman, being a bus driver is more than just providing transportation; it’s about creating a safe, welcoming, and positive start and end to every student’s school day.

All photos provided by Meredith McManaman.