Joe Glover, director of transportation at Mansfield (TX) Independent School District, was named SCHOOL BUS FLEET’s 1997 Administrator of the Year. Glover received the award from SBF Publisher Frank Di Giacomo at the National Association for Pupil Transportation’s annual conference in Indianapolis in November.

“When I heard I was the winner, my first reaction was, ‘Wow.’ I was very humbled and pleased to be honored,” Glover admits. He was one of several exemplary candidates for this award, which was inaugurated in 1974.

Glover has been active in pupil transportation at the local, state and national level for several years. “Joe has been a very busy man in the past five to 10 years,” says Diane Sherwood, executive director of the Texas Association for Pupil Transportation (TAPT).

“He’s a very important part of our organization,” Sherwood says. “He has worked all through the executive committee and still teaches certification courses. We just can’t say enough how proud we are that he was named Administrator of the Year.”

Glover has served as president for a number of local associations, including TAPT, of which he is currently past president. His involvement with NAPT began in 1988, when he became a member and began attending conferences.

Certification is priority

In 1991, Glover joined NAPT’s Professional Certification Committee and has been on it ever since. Along with Lucy Pepper, he redesigned the certification test in 1992–93.

“People take these exams to help themselves become professionally recognized and to demonstrate they have a body of knowledge that will allow them to move to the next level in their professional development,” Glover says.

In addition to the certification exams, Glover is also involved with certifying continuing education. “Since there are so few schools in this country that have course work on pupil transportation, we do this to help those in this industry further their education,” he says. Schools that want to offer this type of education submit the planned curriculum and hours of instruction to qualify as a NAPT-certified course.

Glover is also active on the teaching front. He co-teaches a course at Texas A&M University on preventive maintenance and shop operations.

Having lofty goals

Glover’s goal is to certify everybody in the United States working in pupil transportation. “Since that isn’t a realistic goal, what I really want to accomplish is to make as many people aware of the program and get as many people certified as possible,” he says.

“We deal with professional educators on a daily basis. They are very aware of a person’s degrees and certificates. By creating these types of certification programs, it elevates us just a little bit in their eyes. And when you are trying to work out a problem with this group, every little bit helps. The certification programs help make educators take those in pupil transportation more seriously."