D.C.-based school for the hard of hearing demonstrates how it meets unique transportation challenges through training

By Ryan Gray

Gallaudet University transportation director Darnese Nicholson

Gallaudet University transportation director Darnese Nicholson’s operation is quite different than most school districts, as it involves far more than transporting students between home and school.

Located in Washington, D.C., the school offers an undergraduate liberal arts education and graduate and doctorate programs for deaf and hard of hearing students. Services and materials related to deaf education are also available to families and professionals nationwide. Gallaudet also provides a program for deaf and hard of hearing students from nursery school age through grade 12.

And in doing so, the university is responsible for transporting 111 pupils on 11 different school routes, and that’s not to mention the field trips, charter service for athletic events and academic-related activities. Nicholson’s outfit also operates a shuttle service for faculty, staff and students between the university campus and D.C. Metro stops from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily with late-night service on weekends for the college students.

And the driver hiring process can be a little dicey, even more so than in “regular” schools nationwide. Drivers must be versatile enough to operate a school run, drive the shuttle bus, perform charter trips or drive university administrators as assigned.

All the while, they must be able to sign.

Drivers and Bus Monitors Making a Difference
“I need to be careful in selecting drivers because of the diverse nature of their duties and the population the drivers serve,” Nicholson said. “They must be able to communicate with not only students, but faculty, staff and parents who may be deaf or hard of hearing.”

Gallaudet’s vision is “total communication,” and the sign language requirement for school bus staff fits perfectly. Drivers and bus monitors must become proficient in sign language very rapidly. When beginning employment, they immediately attend a university-provided sign language class.

“Most progress very rapidly. Their skills improve quickly because they interact with students on a daily basis,” she said. “They understand it is a condition of employment to not only learn, but use sign language when working here.”

Kenneth Marshall, 59, is a Vietnam veteran and a former counselor for the local Boys and Girls Club. He also drove for a tour bus company before coming to Gallaudet about four years ago. He said the move was a real “eye-opener” because he was not used to interacting with his passengers and had no previous sign language experience. And he previously didn’t need to know how to use tie-downs or have CPR and first aid training.
“It takes you years; its not something you’re going to be able to do immediately,” he said of signing. While classroom instruction was helpful, “The actual application you pick up is from the students themselves. They have their own ways of signing.

“It was kind of a unique situation on top of the fact that I had to learn a whole new culture,” he added. “But they’re no different then any other children.”

Georgette Hardy is a bus monitor who’s been at Gallaudet for the past eight years. “I learned pretty fast,” she said. “I love it. Each day I’m learning something different, and what I learn I can take back to my own family.”

Promoting Ownership
All of the buses have bus monitors — some of whom are deaf or hard of hearing themselves. The bus monitors use cell phones or text-messaging devices to communicate with the transportation dispatch office.

“The beauty of having bus monitors, in addition to the obvious benefit of student safety, is by reassigning communication responsibility to bus monitors, the driver is relieved yet another possible distraction, allowing the driver to focus completely on the road,” Nicholson explained. “The bus monitors become an even more integral part of the school bus team.”

This department-wide philosophy of teamwork gives the driver and monitor ownership over their own bus. This often is accomplished by developing a rapport with the students. For example, Hardy said she has decorated her bus for the holidays and given gifts — only after talking with parents and obtaining their permission. But, at the end of the day, the children also know both the driver and monitor are the bosses.

“My monitor and I, we establish rules for the bus, assign seats; we’re consistent with what we do. That’s they key,” said Marshall, who drives a different route than that which Hardy monitors. “On my bus anyway, my monitor and I agree it would be better to teach older students to help the smaller ones.”

For example, smaller children must be restrained in child safety seats. During evacuation drills, Marshall and his monitor assign the older children to mentor a smaller child by helping them out of their child safety seat restraints and taking charge of them as they exit the bus.

“It’s an inclusive type of situation,” he added. “We look at ourselves as parent reps on the bus. I’m there to let them know, no matter if the regular monitor is there or not, or if I’m not there, the discipline of the bus is the same.”

The Operations
The school routes involve picking up and dropping off students from nursery school through the eighth grade at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School. The buses serve students in a 15-mile radius encompassing the District of Columbia and parts of Maryland and Virginia.

While the students riding the buses are considered special needs due to deafness, there are currently no students with other physical challenges, recognized behavior problems or those requiring special equipment. Still, some buses are equipped with wheelchair lifts. All buses in the fleet are air conditioned.

Bus service for the students is “door to door,” unless a student lives more than 15 miles from the school. In that case, the student comes to a designated pickup point to meet the bus. The buses do not have onboard cameras or GPS units. All students are picked up on the same side of the street as their home. Unless on a one-way street, no student crosses in front of the school bus.

“Training is a huge part of my transportation program,” said Nicholson, as drivers and bus monitors are required to complete at least 40 hours of training annually. All staff must also have first aid and CPR certifications.

“We train constantly on different aspects of pupil transportation,” she added. Among the recent training programs has been the School Bus Watch program.

Despite the specialized service, Nicholson down plays the differences between Gallaudet’s operations and those of other school transportation operations.

“The most noticeable difference is that, when other drivers talk to students and parents, we are signing in most cases,” she said. “However, we get the same complaints, have the same issues and daily challenges that all school districts have.”