School buses are designed to create a safe haven for children. They are big, bright and beautiful, and their familiar shape and color tells the world what they are. They are staffed by highly vetted, trained and committed drivers and monitors. They are highly visible symbols of government-sponsored organizations. And, they are everywhere in our districts.

From dawn to after dusk, buses travel from corner-to-corner across the district. They are often the first and last impression parents have of a school district each day. They can start a child’s day off well, or be there to reassure a parent at the end of a day.

And with their alert driving attitudes and familiarity of the streets, our drivers are in an ideal position to be the watchdogs for the district and community. They know instantly when something does not look right because they understand the patterns and routines they witness every day. Using their two-way radios, they let us know about accidents, traffic problems, weather issues, downed branches or wires and stuck traffic signals. They are the first to spot problems at bus stops or school loading zones. They are the front line of creating a safe environment for our programs.

At Buffalo Public Schools, we occasionally used our drivers as our own version of Sherlock Holmes’ “Baker Street Irregulars.” During an emergency situation, such as a student who got off at a wrong stop, we would issue our version of a BOLO (“be on the look-out”). We would transmit the description and likely area of the child and drivers would immediately become an all-encompassing search team as they simultaneously went about their regular activities.

This type of role for bus drivers was even acknowledged by the Department of Homeland Security and TSA’s First Observer program, first developed in 2006 as the"Highway Watch," designed so that bus and truck drivers could observe and report suspicious or illegal activity along highways and at truck stops and rest stops.

Bus drivers and monitors are the eyes and ears of our transportation programs — the guardian angels of school transportation. So the next time you become exasperated by some bus driver related issue, take a moment to stop and think of their role in this larger context and join me in saying thanks to all of our drivers and monitors for all they do for our children every day.

Which is why the nationwide “Love the Bus” program that recognizes school bus drivers for their work and dedication to the job is a casual but important “holiday” the industry observes. One article reported how E&B Transportation in Dover, Pa., held an event for drivers who serve the Dover Area School District. The company provided breakfast for the drivers and the owners handed out valentines and gift cards. The bus drivers also received posters from students.

Just as we should express to our loved ones how much they mean to us, we must all remember to say “thank you” to bus drivers every day.

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Sadly, this week was also a tragic one. A day after Valentine’s Day, an 11-year-old girl died after her school bus and a dump truck collided in Chesterfield, N.J. Identified as 11-year-old Isabelle Tezsla, she was a triplet and the daughter of a New Jersey state trooper. Her two sisters, who were also on the bus, were injured.

An article published today reported one of the sisters’ condition being upgraded to stable condition, but the other sister remains in critical condition. Based on our own fatality count, Tezsla’s is the third student so far this year to be killed inside a school bus during crash.

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Congress passed legislation that will extend a 2-percentage-point payroll tax cut for some 160 million Americans through the end of this year.

The Los Angeles Times reported that President Obama is expected to "quickly" sign the bill, which passed the House by a vote of 203-132 and the Senate by a vote of 60-36. The legislation includes an extension of long-term unemployment benefits while reducing the number of weeks unemployment insurance can be claimed.

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The House Committee on Natural Resources is expected to approve a bill that would increase logging and revenues to counties that include untaxed national forests to add funds to rural school district education coffers.

The Modesto (Calif.) Bee reported that the Republican-backed plan would be a replacement for the Secure Rural Schools Act that expired last year.

"The House bill would set up a two-year transition period, giving counties a chance to opt out of the new funding stream and revert to the less-generous old system. The bill would sidestep some environmental reviews and block lawsuits challenging some timber projects."

Democrats, meanwhile, champion renewing the Secure Rural Schools Act. They say the new plan will hurt the environment, and they question the validity of the revenue targets.

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NHTSA published recommended guidelines to address driver distraction by in-vehicle electronic devices for vehicles 10,000 pounds GVWR and less. School buses are not mentioned in the Federal Register notice, but the guidelines would include Type A-1 small school buses.

NHTSA said it is holding three public meetings next month in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Chicago, though the agency is not required to do so because the guidelines would "not have the force and effect of law and will not be regulations."

NHTSA said the guidelines would cover visual, manual and cognitive distractions, all of which would certainly apply to the school bus drivers. The new recommendations are an extension of NHTSA's Driver Distraction Program released in 2010.

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Motorists in Washington State who purchase electric vehicles face a potential $100 annual fee that, all told, could add $1.9 million to the state's budget over the next five years. The fee would be in response to eletric car owners no longer paying gas taxes. The state Senate passed the bill and it now moves to the House.

But those of you who are interested in potentially purchasing an electric bus probably have nothing to worry about. The bill only applies to the annual renewal fees. Allan J. Jones, state director of pupil transportation at the Washington Office of Public Instruction, reminded that school buses in Washington usually have exempt plates because they are district owned or operated by a private contractor for a district. The exception would be contractor buses that are licensed for charter work with normal business plates.

Jones told us his understanding is that the state requires municipalities and school districts to pay the state tax on gas or diesel fuel or they have to provide that same tax break to construction companies doing highway work with federal money.

"Since that is such a big pile of money, the state would lose big time if they gave districts a break," he added. "Of course, we have a high tax here, so in some states it may not be an issue."

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Not just a television show, kids really say and do the darndest things. In this case, it’s what one kid did along with her mother and another parent in Albuquerque, N.M. A third-grade girl, her mother and another parent stopped a school bus whose driver was having a seizure at the time he was supposed to pick up students at a neighborhood bus stop.

One of the mothers noticed that the school bus did not stop to pick up children waiting to board. The woman’s daughter knew something was wrong and yelled, "Mom, something’s not right with our bus driver," as reported in a Feb. 16 article. While the mother was running alongside the bus, she made eye contact with a third-grader inside the bus. The student opened the bus doors to let the mother in so she could stop the bus. Meanwhile, the second parent and a student called 911.

The students inside the bus were shaken but OK, and while at the hospital, the bus driver asked if the students were alright. It goes to show that parents also need to know what to do in emergency situations like this, not just the students.

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Nowadays, more students are walking to school because of shorter, consolidated bus routes. But one student, who lives 4.6 miles away from school, had to walk to school because his mother wanted to teach him a lesson. That lesson resulted in the mother being arrested for endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor.

The 10-year-old boy had been suspended from riding the school bus for the fifth time due to yelling. Obviously the mother felt like she was at her wit’s end and wanted her son to remember this lesson so he can be allowed to ride the bus. Apparently the son realized this, as the article stated that he believes his mother didn’t do anything wrong. However, this incident raises the question, as stated by a police official in the article, “You ask yourself the question, is that safe for the child?”

The anticipation is killing me. “Come on, show me the closer!” I say to the screens. Then, at precisely at 4:41 a.m., one of my co-works posted on Facebook what I had been waiting for... “ School closed; just got my call." Yahooo!

I know, I am worse than one of the kids. So now, it is time to decide what to do for the whole “snow day." This is another one of those reasons I love driving a school bus, because we get all the holidays and snow days that the kids do.

Yes, let me tell you I am seriously like one of the kids on a snow day. I am out in the snow as much as possible! It just so happens that this was our first of many snow days here in Washington. The first day, the roads were just barely covered, and I was surprised that they called the whole day and not just a two hour late start. But who am I to complain?

So I ended up going to the mall with my daughter and getting supplies for the house because they were calling for more snow. The rest of the week we got over a foot of snow, and then the freezing rain. With the holiday weekend and all the snow days, I was off of work and at home for over a week. I couldn’t wait to get back to driving and a normal schedule.

The following Monday, the snow had melted, mostly, but the temperatures were still low. Our first day back ended up being a two-hour late start. I am not so sure that was enough time because the snow had melted plus the rain then overnight temperatures dropped below 30, a recipe for some really icy roads in the mornings, which they were. I say this because, while I was walking out to my car at home, I almost fell on my biscuits. Then driving into the bus barn I watched people slide all over the roads.

What really made me think that we shouldn’t have been at work was when I stood right outside the door of base/transportations lounge. What I saw was like an episode of “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” I waited for the sound effects because I stood there watching my co-workers walk super carefully across the sheet of ice that covered our bus parking lot. Then, I wasn’t sure if I should laugh or help when I saw two of my co-workers do that “banana peel slip” move and fall right on their biscuits.

I am seriously kicking myself for not video taping this. It was quite comical to watch. Yet, you have to wonder what the bosses were thinking in a situation like this. What if someone seriously had gotten hurt? I say this because the rest of the morning all we heard over the radio was about kids falling and buses sliding. Oh well; we got through it and to say the least it was an interesting first day back after a great snow storm!

Now, I have written in my past blogs about how little air flow there is in my bus and how the windows get all steamed up on rainy days. Well, there is another down fall of this very poor air circulation...smells! In fact, one of the things that I really stress when going over the rules of the bus at the beginning of every year is to not wear or apply any perfumes or lotions while on the bus.One of the reasons for that is because, if a person does apply, the whole bus will smell it.

Yet, if a student has asthma, if could possibly trigger a breathing attack. This is my way of communicating to the students that I can smell everything on the bus! I have smelled nail polish, hand sanitizer, matches and many other things. Over the years, I have taken many sports trips. I realized very quick which ones I no longer wanted to take...football and soccer. These two sports always play, no matter what.

Say it is raining. They are out in the grass, mud and rain, running up and down the field sweating their teenage hormonal bodies off for the win. Well, you have heard the saying “It smells like a locker room in here." Oh, you have not smelled anything until you cram 50 wet, muddy, sweaty athletic bodies plus all their gear into a 40-foot bus! This is were you go, "yuck!"

How about the walking teenage whoopee cushion? Oh yes, stink bombs, farting or whatever you what to call it...are the worst! I know that you can’t aways control your bodily function's timing and need to release the gas unexpectedly but OMG, on the bus? With all the windows up it smells like an outhouse! So, here is a little tip for new drivers...close your driver window ASAP! If you don’t... that smell has no where to go but towards you, right past your nose and out the window! So close your window and have the kids in the back ( preferably the trouble makers) to put down their windows for a few minutes. This should clear out the smell in no time.

Plus, you get to smile knowing that they just had to inhale that wonderful smell!

Christe Smith is a school bus driver for the Olympia School District in Olympia, Wash. She has been enjoying driving a bus for the past 10 years and has experienced many events that she has decided to share with the rest of the STN readers. You may also view her blog at Life as a School Bus Driver.

School districts and transportation departments have been forced to do more with less for at least the last four, and in most cases many more, years. Well worn efficiency techniques such as bell time changes and alternative routing strategies were generally adequate to accommodate funding cuts in the initial years. It must be recognized that initial efforts to “cut the fat” have continued down to the marrow.

Efforts to “efficiency” our way around structural funding problems or long-term funding reductions are both ineffective and unsustainable. Service levels will decline, fleets will get older, and paradoxically costs are likely to increase as transportation managers continue to try to accommodate increasing educational demands with decreasing resources. If this trajectory is correct, it is an indication that as an industry we must make greater efforts to demonstrate the value of transportation.

The amount of funding provided to any specific function is ultimately a statement by policy makers about priorities. This was never clearer than when I watched a wise superintendent explain to his school board that his transportation department, “Could do anything they wanted but not everything they wanted.”

This is likely to be an increasingly common refrain as districts continue to make difficult choices about what services to offer and how to provide them. While we are never absolved from our responsibility to use the resources provided efficiently, it must also be understood that over time the amount of service provided must be reconciled with the funding provided.

As the 50 state funding formulas and the various allowances for supplemental revenue demonstrate, there is clearly no national consensus on how to value or support transportation. The coming funding debates will require all stakeholders to communicate with a clear voice and a clear vision as to why transportation should be a priority and the implications on service delivery if it is not.

Tim Ammon is a consultant with Management Partnership Services, Inc., in Rockville, Md. He has extensive experience in system implementation and use and evaluating school bus routes and schedules and has analyzed all aspects of transportation and fleet management operations. Ammon also assists in the specification and implementation of transportation software applications.

The purpose of this research is to develop procedures to assess technologies that prevent or delay fire penetration into the occupant compartment, in order to increase passenger evacuation time, through detection warning systems, suppression/extinguishment and flammability/fire hardening of exterior materials.

Interested companies were asked to submit Corporate Capability Statements that demonstrate ability and interest in no more than 10 pages.

The NHTSA request is for planning purposes only. There was no timetable for when a study, if any, would be conducted.

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While the announcement doesn't directly affect new school bus production, news from Navistar this week that it is partnerning with Clean Energy Fuels Corp. to add natural gas options for its heavy-duty truck customers. Then, Cummins Westport announced it will be supplying Navistar with its natural gas ISL G engine for International TranStar and WorkStar trucks.

The only alternative fuel options currently offered to IC Bus customers are the charge-sustaining and charge-depleting CE Series hybrids, the latter model the first plug-in school buses in the nation first introduced in 2006. Ever since, the alternative-fuel space has grown considerably. But look for this week's natural gas news to have some trickle-down effects for IC Bus in the future, as often occurs when new projects are implemented in the commercial space.

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On a related Navistar note, the company announced it formally submitted its 0.2g NOx in-cylinder engine certification data to the EPA to recertify its MaxxForce line. The company was warned last month by CARB that its engine credits to meet the 2010 on-road diesel emissions requirements were set to expire.

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The American School Bus Council redesigned its website. The organization is also still planning to hold a national "Love the Bus" event in in

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Ralph Knight, director of transportation at Napa Valley (Calif.) Unified School District, alerted us that he will soon take delivery of two new Collins NexBus hybrid Type A school buses. They will be the second and third buses of its kind to operate in the state. Napa Valley purchased the first Collins hybrid three years ago. Knight said the California Highway Patrol approved the green rub rails, as state regulations normally specify only black rub rails be used on school buses.

Knight also said the district will also soon take delivery of new 71-passenger Thomas Built C2e hybrids.

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Europe's fiscal woes are well documented, and look no further for proof that student transportation is not exempt, just as it is here in the States. Association Internationale Pour la Securite du Transport des Jeunes, better known as AIST, reported it its Winter 2012 newsletter that Belgium experienced a spike in requested transportation service in 2011 amid a nearly complete blockage of funding. The Societe Regionale Wallonne de Transport, the main transportation leader in the Walloon region, the predominantly French-speaking southern region of the country, was forced to reduce the number of students transported with the local school transportation system.

Sound familiar?