With 14 conferences under its belt, the STN staff was ready to roll the dice with some new speakers, new workshops and updated surroundings at this year’s School Transportation News 15th Annual EXPO Conference and Trade Show. Beginning with an alternative-fueled general session and a fun-filled welcome party in the Grand Sierra Resort’s new bar, this year’s conference kept on trucking until its final workshop on Wednesday morning.

The Earlier Bird Gets the Latest Lesson
Those who came to STN’s pre-conference got two days of firsts. Charley Kennington, Sue Shutrump. Cheryl Wolf and Jean Zimmerman introduced the new National Highway Traffic Safety Administration manual for child restraint systems on school buses. Two previous versions of the new course were presented earlier this year at the Transporting Students with Disabilities & Preschoolers conference and the Southeastern State Directors conference. The all-star team has been working over the last year months developing the curriculum. The last training revision occurred in 1999.

“The fundamental issue is school buses are not designed to transport pre-school-age children and, until recently, no child safety restraints were designed specifically for the school bus,” Kennington said to the packed room full of attendees.

This kind of training is all the more important when pre-school and Head Start drivers find themselves transporting younger and younger drivers, Kennington added.

First Time, First Aid
About 47 percent of those suffering from a heart attack for the first time die within one hour of the first symptom, according to American Red Cross instructor Donna Miller. Would you know what to do if one of your employees has a heart attack at the depot? What if a student stopped breathing or choked on the bus?

During School Transportation News’ first-ever training in child and adult first-aid and CPR, Miller led attendees through exercises designed to teach what to do stabilize and care for victims before first responders arrive.

A driver from Greensboro, N.C., said she and her fellow drivers get a few hours of basic training in first aid annually. But that, she said, is minimal and doesn’t compare to the comprehensiveness of the Red Cross course.

“I think all drivers should have this,” she said.

At the end of two-day training all attendees took in-class tests to gain official American Red Cross certification.

Starting with Some Green and a Revamped Welcome Party
The school bus OEMs’ latest hybrid- and propane-powered offerings were the backdrop for this year’s opening general session on the state of alternative fuels in the school bus industry. Panelists Denny Coughlin (fleet operations manager for Minneapolis Public Schools), Alexandra Robinson (transportation director for San Diego Unfied), Charlie Ott (former transportation director for Yuba City, Calif., Unified), Ralph Knight (transportation director for Napa Valley, Calif., Unified), and Gene Holloway (transportation director for Denton, Texas, ISD) followed an introduction by Jack Kitowski, chief of California Air Resources Board’s on-road controls regulations branch, with presentations on their experiences with biodiesel, clean diesel, CNG, hybrid-electric plug-ins and propane. Blue Bird introduced its newest addition to the industry’s environmentally friendly movement, the propane-powered Vision. IC Bus was also on hand with its hybrid-electric plug-in CE series, while Thomas Built Buses displayed its green-trimmed hybrid Saf-T-Liner C2 prototype. One attendee mentioned her district would be interested in the Thomas hybrid not only because of its environmental benefits but because it’s yellow and green colors are those of the school mascot.

The nightlife kicked off Sunday at one of the Grand Sierra Resort’s newly renovated hot spots, 20 500 East. The conversation and camaraderie flowed until the late night hours and gave attendees a great means to network with professionals from around the country, including many of this years scheduled speakers.

Awarding Excellence on Many Levels
Some new additions to this year’s EXPO were the STN Driver Appreciation and Green Awards, in addition to the presentation of the second annual Peter J. Grandolfo Memorial Award of Excellence. The first presentation, which was given for the STN Green Fleet Award, coincided with the opening general session on alternative fuels. Ralph Knight of Napa Valley was presented with the magazine’s first-ever, environmentally-friendly award for his forward thinking and initiative when it comes to making the Napa Valley, Calif., School District fleet as green as possible.

Jack Welsh won the second annual Peter J. Grandolfo Memorial of Excellence for his lifelong work — 54 years and counting to be exact — for the students of Montana (see accompanying story, page xx). The former transportation director for Shepherd School District #37 located near Billings was recognized for being a founding member of the Montana Association for Pupil Transportation in the late 1970s as well as providing outstanding service for all school districts across the state. In addition to delivering new school buses for I-State Truck, he continues to provide school bus driver training as well as serve as co-chair for MAPT’s annual vendor show. Welsh also has won MAPT’s Transportation Person of the Year several times.

He was nominated by current David Peil, Shepherd’s current transportation director, Betty Kunkel, MAPT’s executive secretary, and Maxine Mougeot, the state transportation director. STN received 12 nominations total for the 2008 Grandolfo Award.

STN’s Driver Appreciation Award winner, Lorenzo Compton, traveled all the way from Philadelphia to accept his award at this year’s Thomas Built Buses breakfast. Compton, a Durham School Services bus driver, was acknowledged for the bond he has created and reinforced with his students. Aside from his duties as a school bus driver, Compton also mentors many of the young students on his routes, in his neighborhood and on the youth football team he coaches. When presented the award by his general manger, Greg Gallagher, was on-stage to present him with the award.

“For some students in the School District of Philadelphia, Lorenzo Compton acts as not only a role model but a father figure. On first meeting him, you understand why his students not only listen and abide by his rules, but work hard for his praise,” said Gallagher.

Compton thanked his wife first and foremost for the honor.

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for her,” said Compton during his acceptance, who has been married to Dorina for the last 18 years. The couple has seven sons.

Packing a Punch and a Powerful Message
This year’s featured keynote speaker, Robert Kennedy, Jr., gave attendees an emotional and energized address on our nation’s current dependence on oil and how we can ween ourselves quicker than many would lead you to think. Kennedy offered not only global examples of countries that have been able to not only lower their oil consumption but boost their economy, like Iceland, but enlisted the lessons of history and religion to express his sometimes controversial position to the audience. Although he ruffled a few political feathers, Kennedy’s appearance at this year’s Blue Bird-sponsored breakfast will be talked about for years to come.

“We’re going to need federal help to make that transformation. But the investment the federal government makes in transforming our school transportation infrastructure to sustainable is going to come back to our people and the federal government ten times over,” Kennedy said. “We need examples of that at every level, but particularly the people who bring our kids to school every morning ought to be the examples. We ought to be able to give them the resources they need to make their transportation infrastructure into an example for the rest of the country.”

Tuesday morning’s keynote continued to both entertain and challenge the attendees, with Nancy McBride speaking on the subject of child abductions. McBride, the national safety director of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), began her speech by applauding the efforts of America’s bus drivers in saving the lives of children on a number of occasions. Quoting statistics from a NCMEC survey on attempted abductions, McBride stressed the importance of training children to fight back if they are accosted by strangers, who many times do not fit the profile many were taught as children.

“We have to work to get away from the ‘stranger danger’ message,” said McBride, explaining that child sex predators are not always the creepy-looking guy hiding in the shadows. Many times they have a pleasant demeanor, initially. This can change the instant they are able to pull a child into their vehicle or get them alone.

Workshops Educate, Evaluate and Enforce Collaborations
McBride’s message was further instilled in both the Sexual Predator panel discussion on which she sat and Dr. Duane Dobbert’s Stalking School Bus Stop Predators workshop. Dr. Dobbert, a keynote speaker at last year’s conference, is a professor at Florida Gulf Coast University and Capella University and has 39 years of experience in the criminal justice field. His class is an overview of his the school bus driver training program, “School Bus Drivers: The 1st Line of Defense Against Sexual Predators.” One of the attendees in the class had already taken the program and brought the information back to her district, where she saw immediate results.

“We were able to identify and aid in the capture of 74 sex offenders,” said Deborah Garmen, transportation director for Red Bluff, Calif., High School District, located about 100 miles northwest of Sacramento.

Across the hall, a number of GPS-related vendors and EXPO attendees were discussing a wide range of issues in the GPS Security panel discussion. Zonar Systems’ Chief Technology Officer Mike McQuade and Deming, N.M., Public Schools’ Ray Trejo were joined at the last minute by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Transportation Security Specialist Steve Joyce. The numerous uses of GPS, as well as the current state of the TSA threat assessment were some of the hot topics discussed in the session.

“In the U.S., there is no credible present threat,” reassured Joyce, who mentioned that information for the assessment was derived from terrorist acts against school buses from around the world. “When we met with school bus industry representatives, we asked what keeps them up at night.”

McQuade and representative from companies such as Transfinder and Everyday Solutions spoke about the everything from GPS’ multiple uses to how to rename the “panic button” on many systems that drivers can use to contact law enforcement in an emergency. An industry-wide collaboration was also suggested by one of the panelists.

“Every technology should work with every other vendor’s technology,” said Zonar’s MCQuade.

The message of collaboration was also touched on in the Numerous Levels of Head Start discussion. Panelists Mike McGrady, executive director of the National Head Start Association; STN EXPO alumni Nancy Netherland; retired Muskogee, Okla., Head Start transportation director Jim Cameron; and Carol Todacheene, transportation supervisor of Kayenta Unified School District #27, did not skirt the issue of the recent reauthorization.

“I was trying to not get political, but I can’t (help it),” said McGrady, who discussed the concept of “starving the beast,” a term coined by David Stockman, the former Reagan Administration budget director, to describe the conservativee fiscal-political strategy of using budget deficits via tax cuts to force future reductions in the size of government.

“You do not shut down a federal program, you continue to add unfunded mandate after unfunded mandate,” McGrady explained.

Many of this year’s classes were jam-packed, some providing standing room only. In Dick Fischer’s session Understanding and Minimizing the School Bus Danger Zone, every seat was filled. In fact dozens of additional seats had to be brought in by hotel staff. Fischer, the father of National School Bus Safety Week and a school bus consultant with more than 50 years in the industry, had taken a four-year hiatus from presenting at the EXPO but was in full swing this year. He said he has already saved the date, July 25-29, for the 2009 conference.

The always popular Dr. Linda Bluth, NAPT’s president elect and the director of monitoring and quality assurance at the Maryland Department of Education, was another of the conferences most popular presenters, holding a intermediate special needs workshop as well as a “How to Say ‘No’ and Defend It” class. Although Bluth’s partner in crime Peggy Burns was absent from this year’s presentation, she was more than able to give attendees a well-informed and detailed overview of the issues.

Saving diminishing transportation funds drove a number of attendees to both the Transportation Accounting and Changing Bell Times workshops presented by Tim Ammon, a consultant with Management Partnership Services. Both sessions gave those in attendance some new ideas on how to stretch those dollars, keep track of spending and how to tier bell times to cut costs.

Nevada’s America’s Best Qualifier
This month, the 5th America’s Best School Bus Inspector and Technician Skills and Training Competition will be held in Tulsa, Okla. Hosted this year by Hydrotex and sponsored by NAPT, Bus Parts Warehouse and Zonar Systems, 24 states are expected to be represented during the three-day event. Nevada is the latest state to hold an inaugural qualifier. Three of the state’s county school districts participated along with two Nevada Highway Patrol school bus inspectors on July 28 during the 15th STN EXPO in Reno.

Washoe County School District in Reno was the host to the inspector and technician competitions managed by Mike Bullman and Jim Cole of the South Carolina Department of Education. William McCarty won the inspectors division and Alfredo Alcade of Clark County (Las Vegas) won the technician competition. Both will represent the state in at the IC Bus plant in Tulsa.

William McCarty of the Nevada Highway Patrol beat out his associate Daniel G. Mawson to take home the top prize in the inspectors category. In the technicians competition, Alfredo Alcade of Clark County won the technicians competition. Andrew Bates of Clark County and Steven McKee of Washoe County finished second and third, respectively.

Both McCarty and Alcade received all-expenses paid trips to compete at America’s Best Sept. 10-12.

Several EXPO maintenance courses were held concurrently with the Nevada qualifier at Washoe including “Transmission Programming to Reduce Fuel Consumption” taught by representatives from Allison and “Single Rear Wheels: New and Retrofit” by Bridgestone and Goodyear reps. Dale Goby, a school transportation consultant based outside of Detroit, facilitated the interactive sessions. He said the single rear wheels workshop lead to a pledge from tire manufacturers to perform a study showing the amount of fuel that can be saved. Goby added that safety of single rear wheels is no longer an issue as bus axles can more than adequately handle the gross vehicle weight. This negates any reason to have dual rear wheels, a staple in the industry for decades.

Everything Yellow Under the Sun
The trade show at this year’s EXPO was one to remember as well. With over 120 vendors on hand, attendees had everything school bus-related right at their fingertips. The OEMs moved their alt-fuel buses down to the showroom floor to let everyone give the newest additions to the green movement a complete once-over. Video camera and GPS technology also had a large presence at the trade show, which completely filled the two exhibition halls at the ground floor level of the Grand Sierra. Prizes and cash drawings kept the energy flowing throughout the six-hour exhibition. Everything from $500 to one of the smallest audio and video recorders around to a Nintendo Wii/plasma combo were given away.