As is so often the case, retirement can be a bittersweet pill to swallow, and especially when one’s career has been spent in pupil transportation.

Like the handful who went before her in 2010, Maxine Mougeot told School Transportation News in December that the industry remains near and dear to her heart even after retiring from the Montana Office of Public Instruction, where she worked for the past 25 years.

“I love these guys, every single one of you and all of the state directors and all of the people I’ve met,” she said. “You hear it over and over when people leave, but it’s really an awesome place to be.”

Mougeot stepped down as the state’s full time transportation director, a position she assumed in 2001 after Gordy Conn took an administrator position elsewhere at OPI. And like many in the industry, Mougeot wore multiple hats as a safety specialist and financial specialist. She actually started at OPI as a federal programs accountant and then, three years later, transitioned to special education data management. Her efforts paid off last year as the Montana Association for Pupil Transportation named Mougeot its “Transportation Person of the Year” for 2010.

“She’s going to be greatly missed,” said Betty Kunkel, the executive secretary at MAPT and the department head at Cascade County Superintendent of Schools. “I don’t know what I’ll do without her. I work with her a lot on transportation. She’s has such a great understanding. I don’t know how [OPI] will train someone to do all that.”

“All that” included ensuring school district compliance with often-times complex state laws and regulations governing student transportation services. Mougeot also planned, coordinated and directed the state’s transportation aid funding program and collected and analyzed data used to determined the eligibility of more than 470 elementary and high school districts statewide for some $24 million each year. This program includes bus inspections, routes and driver qualifications. She also reported fiscal and non-fiscal program information to the U.S. Department of Education and the Montana state legislature.

Not bad for a woman who dropped out of high school at 17 to raise a family with husband Gary (pictured, above, with Maxine at a recent Montana Grizzlies football game). But nothing could stop Mougeot from later earning her GED decades later following odd jobs that included being an eyeglass welder for an optometrist’s office and working at a welding shop owned by her husband as a bookkeeper, receptionist, bill collector and, that’s right a welder. At one time, Mougeot could weld a plow plate on a snow plow. But she always knew she had a higher calling.

“My mother always told me that I would never be anything without an education, so I always had that in the back of my mind,” Mougeot added.

Mougeot poses with her 2010 Transportation Person of the Year Award with MAPT Executive Secretary Betty Kunkel.

“It’s been a wonderful education,” she added.

But don’t think for a minute that this self-made, Jill-of-all-trades is ready to sail into the sunset of retirement. While she chose to leave OPI, and no successor had been named to replace her, Mougeot said she plans on remaining closely aligned with the pupil transportation industry, but perhaps after some good old R&R. She planned to head out into Big Sky country and beyond with Gary in the couple’s camper in search of rafting, hiking and fishing adventures.

“I hope I’m not done yet [with pupil transportation],” added Mougeot, who also served as regional director west for NASDPTS the past several years. “I want to stay involved. You’ll see me poking around somewhere. I’m going to stay attached to MAPT.”