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Every time I see a school bus drive by in my hometown of Perham, MN I wonder what it is like to drive on the Great Plains. What sparks my interest most is what the winter months are like for the drivers. I also wonder if they like their jobs or if they would rather do something else. I decided to interview Bill Bauck who is the manager of the busing company in Perham. I touched on a few subjects such as community life in Perham, his experiences with running the bus company, and driving in the winter months.

There are many tests that a person has to go through to become a bus driver. They have to pass a couple written tests, a driving test with a school bus, undergo an entry level drug test, and be subject to random drug tests throughout the time they’re involved with driving school buses. Many of the tests they have to take are given by the state and local government. They must also follow the discipline actions enforced by the school. From what Bill told me, these drivers take on a load of responsibility the moment they have one child step on the bus.

Bill has lived in Perham, MN his entire life; he lives just a ½ block from where his great great grandfather grew up. He discussed how the town has prospered since the time he was born. The streets in the main part of town used to be just like township roads; they weren’t asphalt and actually had ditches. He stayed in Perham because he became involved in the family business; running the bus company. He does dislike the town somewhat though because it’s small. His wife and he enjoy bigger cities, so to compensate for living in a small town; they travel to much bigger cities when on vacation. They have visited many cities in Europe and Finland which is where his wife is from. He did say however, that it has gotten easier to live here because the town has prospered so much. 50 years ago there weren’t many job opportunities for young people; girls could clerk in a story or work at the hospital and guys could work on their family farms. Because Perham is a desirable place for couples and families the community has had to adjust and there have become many new jobs available and that’s because the community is willing to accept new people. Having more and more families moving into the community has added more children to our school district. But on the downside, because families nowadays are much smaller we have seen a decline in enrolment. I wondered why people want to move to a smaller town and Bill said that out town has much more to offer than surrounding communities. For instance, we have a very nice community center that was founded through just donations which says a lot about the people who live in Perham. We also offer many lakes, a good school district, and a great community life. He said that the community is involved in many school events and participates in holiday seasons such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the summer holidays such as the 4th of July. I then went on to talk about what driving a school bus on the Great Plains was like. Bill said that he has been involved in the busing company for 58 years; he manages the family business and also drives buses although he has slowed that down over the years. He said that driving the bus isn’t relaxing; it’s a very stressful job because of all the responsibility. Young people don’t respect authority much any more and it’s hard to discipline them because there are many more rules dealing with the issue than there used to be. Another stressful fact is driving in the winter months. He used to have to wake up at 3:30 when there was expected bad weather to go and check the driving conditions, then call the superintendent to give his opinion of what they should do for school that day. Sometimes when the weather wasn’t bad enough to cancel school, Bill would get calls from one teacher yelling at him because she indicated the teachers couldn’t get out of their garages however, all the bus drivers were already at the station ready to go. He said that having to be the one to call in the road conditions was probably one of the most stressful parts of his job because he was constantly getting second guessed. Sometimes the superintendent would decide to keep school on but when the buses were out driving and called in some bad roads, they would decide to cancel school for the day. This was another stressful part of his job because all the kids that had been picked up had to be dropped off again. However, some of the parent of the younger children had already left for work, so Bill would have to contact the parents and inform them of the cancellation so that they could make other arrangements. He also mentioned another reason he doesn’t care for driving in the winter months is because of the darkness. When they leave early in the morning and it’s dark and there’s a lot of snow, it’s difficult to tell where you are. Sometimes you think that you’re on the road and have plenty of room but you’re actually about to go into the ditch.

Hearing all of this information made me realize how truly hard it is to perform well at a job like this. I never had any idea that bus drivers had to go through this much; I guess it was something I overlooked. Knowing that you’re in charge of so many children that get on and off of the bus everyday would make me so nervous; I would never want that kind of responsibility. I really learned a lot from this interview, not only about bus drivers but also about my community.

Bibliography:

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos242.htm
http://www.ladylike4.com/
I also contacted other bus drivers and the school to acquire back ground information.