School bus industry veteran Pete Meslin will soon step down from his school district role and will take on a consulting position.

At the end of February, Meslin will retire as the director of transportation for Newport-Mesa Unified School District in Costa Mesa, California. In March, he will join the team at School Bus Consultants, which is a member of the TransPar Group of Companies.

Meslin is a nationally recognized authority on transporting students with disabilities. He has been honored for his work to integrate special-needs students into transportation systems in the least restrictive way feasible.

In 2016, Meslin won the Peter J. Grandolfo Memorial Award of Excellence for his “Bus in the Classroom” program, which imparts transportation life skills to students with special needs.

“I could not be more pleased to have Pete joining the SBC team,” said Tom Platt, president of School Bus Consultants. “His wealth of experience and exceptional understanding of special-needs transportation requirements will add tremendous value to our client organizations … and his presence in California will bolster our continued expansion in this region.”

School Bus Consultants’ services cover such areas as operational assessments, routing and scheduling strategies, bell time change management, and insourcing and outsourcing transitions.

“After more than 35 years working for school districts, I am excited to be moving to SBC,” Meslin said. “I hope to reach a larger audience with creative programs. Ultimately, I'd like to help more districts serve students better and less expensively.”