Multi-Talented, Multi-Faceted
and Multi-Lingual

Alexandra Robinson uses her talents to take her position, her students and the industry to a new level

By Stephane Babcock

For some in the school bus industry, their careers — no matter the length — have been a journey. While some begin behind the wheel of a yellow bus, others start so far from the driver’s seat that they have to jump coasts to get there. Alexandra Robinson, San Diego Unified School District’s transportation director, made a similar move.

“I applied for the job in San Diego after seeing an ad in School Transportation News, as a matter of fact,” said Robinson, who left her home in Florida and a position with the state department of education in 1996.

“We’re were happy for her, but selfishly we hated to lose her,” said Charlie Hood, Florida’s state director and Robinson’s former supervisor. “It was obviously an opportunity for her that history has shown she has seized and made the best of.“

Reminiscing on her time spent working at the Florida State Department of Education, Robinson called it “one of the best experiences ever.” She was given the opportunity to provide technical assistance to the all of Florida’s 68 counties, “and both special education and transportation directors actually listened.” The position, which was based on a grant from the U.S. DOE, has become one of Robinson’s first success stories in collaboration.

But the seeds for her roots in special needs were planted long before she advocated for specialized student services in Florida. In high school, one of her first volunteer assignments was with the Special Olympics as a youth director.

“I was drawn to those children who were often trapped in silent bodies,” said Robinson.
Robinson was born in New York City and grew up in both New York and then Connecticut. The daughter of French-born parents, she was blessed with the opportunity to spend her summers in both France and Spain, and soon became multilingual.

“Spanish helps tremendously here in San Diego and the French helps with many of our students who have relocated here with much of the African refugee assistance. French was also certainly helpful this year when I had the opportunity to present at the Canadian International Conference,” said Robinson, who also minored in Russian in college, adding another dimension to her linguistic talents.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree from Rollins College near Orlando, Fla., Robinson traveled back to Connecticut to complete her master’s in administration and leadership from the University of Hartford. Before making her way to the Florida and the state DOE, Robinson worked as an associate teacher for students with emotional disturbances and severe autism in West Hartford, then as a therapist at the Seagrave House in Orlando. Her first brush with transportation came when she took the position of crisis intervention specialist at Orange County Public Schools. Within a year she was a manager for the district’s transportation department.

“In Florida I realized that the school bus wasn’t thought of as an extension of the classroom,” recalled Robinson. “The drivers I worked with at the time were not given information about the students they transported, and as a former teacher, my sense of frustration and disbelief was high. I thought I could make a difference.”

After four years of managing the daily operation of more than 150 school bus operators and monitors, and instituting not only an audio/video install program that garnered local media attention but HIV/AIDS and CPR/first aid training programs, Robinson was contracted by Hood to act as the department’s special education transportation liaison for Florida’s 67 school districts and over 50,000 students with special needs.

“She has established herself as one of a small cadre of true leaders in our industry who regularly deal with national ‘big picture’ policy issues and who are able to be forward thinkers and provide leadership for the rest of us,” said Hood, who becomes NASDPTS president this month.

It is that leadership that leads to invitations to numerous pupil transportation events around the country. A regular at both NAPT and STN annual conferences, Robinson is also part of tenured faculty for the annual National Conference on Transporting Students with Disabilities & Preschoolers and is the chair of the National School Transportation Specifications and Procedures’ general operations writing committee for the 2010 congress.

Robinson also puts her years of experience to good work as a member of one of the Council of Great City Schools (CGCS) peer review teams. The organization, a coalition of more than 60 of the nation’s largest urban public school districts, also performs audits of school districts when requested, and Robinson has made numerous trips in the last six years to help improve the transportation services for many metropolitan public schools.

“It’s a terrific experience and another way that Alex contributes to others to spread her knowledge,” said Buffalo Public Schools Assistant Superintendent John Fahey, who works with Robinson as a CGCS peer. “She’s one of the main sources for special education transportation knowledge in our industry. I rely on her a lot and I always lean on her when questions come up.”

Robinson and Fahey are joined by Dan Roberts from Round Rock ISD in Texas, Rich Jacobs from Boston and John Lombardi from Philadelphia, to perform peer reviews in other large urban school districts. The team of transportation directors will visit a district for three or four days, give an overview or summary of the district operations and make suggestions for improvements.

“It helps to make their operations better. It’s almost like a consultant coming in, doing an audit of your district, setting up key performance indicators and helping create business plans,” said Robinson.

As one can clearly see, Robinson has made an impression on every one she has worked with through the years, no matter how long or short that relationship has been. Although her present “boss” at San Diego, Bill Kowba, the district’s chief logistics officer, has only worked with Robinson for a short time, he was more than able to speak on her abilities and the benefits she brings to San Diego Unified for some time. In fact, he talked for 15 minutes straight on her expertise and character.

“She empowers her people to get the job done,” said Kowba. “Transportation is more than getting the buses filled and moving from point A to B in the fastest, cheapest way; it’s more than I could have ever imagined. To be able to bring productivity to such an uneven work schedule takes a lot of leadership and management skills, and she has that.”