FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 31, 2013
Calvert County Schools Honor School Bus Drivers
As part of the annual National Love the Bus program which takes place each February, parents, students and teachers are celebrating the over two hundred school bus drivers employed by the twenty-five members of the Calvert County School Bus Contractors Association. These drivers transport up to 15,000 students safely to and from schools in Calvert County each day.
Dwight Bishop, Sr. owner of Bishop Bus Service, Inc. in Lusby, and the President of the Calvert County School Bus Contractors Association said, "I am grateful that students, parents and school staff take a few moments during the month of February to say thank you to our bus driver. Bus drivers care about students, are well-trained and are committed to safely transporting students to and from school."
In Calvert County, school buses travel approximately 3.2 million miles each year while transporting students to school and school activities.
To thank their bus drivers, students and staff at Beach Elementary School will be providing bus drivers with survival snack bags. At Appeal Elementary, each class will make a card for a bus driver. On Valentine’s Day, drivers will be given the card and an individually wrapped honey bun with a label saying, "Thanks for providing such a sweet ride for us at Appeal!"
The Love the Bus program, founded in 2007 and coordinated by the American School Bus
Council is celebrated throughout February in school districts across the country as a way to raise awareness and appreciation for the hundreds of thousands of school bus drivers who safely transport more than 26 million school children to and from school each day. This year, Calvert County’s celebration will occur around Valentine’s Day.
Bus drivers receive specialized classroom and behind-the-wheel training in driving a school bus, student loading/unloading procedures, student evacuation, managing student behavior and security of students. All school bus drivers are required to participate in pre-employment, random and post-accident drug and alcohol testing, frequent driving record checks, and periodic medical exams to ensure they are physically qualified. The bus contractors who manage school buses carefully monitor bus drivers, and also keep the buses in good working condition, including having the buses inspected four times per year.
School buses are, by far, the safest vehicles on the road, with a safety record confirmed by government authorities to be better than any other form of ground transportation. School buses are designed and constructed with more safety features than any other vehicle, and the school transportation industry works continually to incorporate the latest technology, training and testing to keep school buses safe.
"Not only are school buses safer than any other method of transporting students to school, but each bus load of student takes literally dozens of cars off the road. This saves money for families in our community and helps preserve the environment for all of us," said Ed Cassidy, Director of Transportation. "We are thrilled for everyone associated with public education in the state for being named tops in the nation for the fifth year in a row," he went on, referring to Maryland being named the highest ranked state in Education Week's annual Quality Counts survey. "You know," continued Cassidy, "the first adult and the last adult that most children associate with the school day is the bus driver. Bus drivers deserve a special "Thank you" for helping get each child’s school day off to a good start, and for helping each school day end on a positive note."
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Media Contact:
Gail Hoerauf-Bennett
410-535-7620