ROCK SPRINGS — In a press release Sweetwater County School District #1’s Transportation Department announced that the organization has been diligently working all summer so that they can provide excellent service to students in the community.
Recently, the district had 34 drivers serving over 400 summer school students and extended school year Band, as well as busing to more than 50 BOCES classes, including Night Skies and Equine Therapy, a special needs program in Green River.
As part of the summer schedule, all 89 yellow school buses, and 53 assorted district vehicles, are deep cleaned so that mechanics can diagnose any problems they may encounter with ease.
Upholsterers fix any interior damage to the estimated 1,700 seats.
Besides cleaning and maintaining the buses, Sweetwater County School District #1 offers training throughout the summer, with two full time trainers who are involved in training new drivers, doing refresher training including OTR (Over The Road) training by taking driver’s around Flaming Gorge in Mountain Driver Training as well as through town, training in high populated areas.
In June, 40 drivers, aides, and safety trainers from Sweetwater #1’s Transportation department attended the Wyoming Pupil Transportation Conference in Casper where they received extensive training on a broad range of topics, anywhere from weapon/drug identification to verbal de-escalation procedures.
Ten drivers, predominantly those scheduled for longer, out of town activity trips, also attended the WY/MT Driving School in July. Director of Transportation, Pete Rust said that professional development for his team is excellent and provides tools needed for all students.
In addition, approximately 20 drivers and bus aids will attend a Special Needs training to receive training on the latest areas of improvement in Special Needs/Special Education transportation.
Finally, to assure that buses are fully prepared for a new school year, the Wyoming Highway Patrol is doing a full safety inspection of every bus the week of August 11th-15th to certify that each vehicle is safe and ready to transport all of the great students of Sweetwater #1 for the 2014-2015 school year.
–From a press release
