Judgment Call

You hire a bus driver without any experience who catches on very quickly. After nine months, she is among the best and brightest of your drivers. An opening for a driver trainer comes up and you’d like to promote her, but you know that your more experienced drivers would be furious. What do you do? I’ve always said to stay with a sure bet. If you have senior personnel who have been loyal to you and have good driving records, you have an obligation to offer them any promotion first. They have already proven their worth. Even if you do promote this new employee over your veteran staff, there is no guarantee that she will stay with your district, and you will look pretty foolish if she leaves. Rick Iannelli Transportation Supervisor Arlington (Mass.) Public Schools rikinle@aol.com I would use a lot of caution in promoting an inexperienced person to a position of driver trainer. In the beginning, many people appear to be the best and brightest, but all too often that changes with time. Mary L. Miller Transportation Director Marion (N.Y.) Central Schools mmiller3@wfmail.edutech.org