GROVE CITY, Ohio — Teaching South-Western City Schools students about bus safety has taken a fun, musical turn, as members of the transportation team tapped into their creative side to create the “School Bus Jive” video.

The transportation department staff had attended a training session designed to provide ideas on ways to make the K-3 safety program more relevant to students.

Following that session, the district’s routing supervisor, Tina Sharrock, and onboard instructors — Ron McClure II, Jim Ryan, Tom Jones and Kristie Wade — brainstormed on how to deliver a consistent school bus safety message to all students in the district in kindergarten through eighth grade. This led to the idea for “School Bus Jive.”

Transportation Supervisor Tim Cox told SBF that the team met several times to discuss the concept for the video, and McClure, a school bus driver, wrote and recorded the lyrics for “School Bus Jive”; he is the lead performer in the video.

“The team made sure that the lyrics covered all five safety areas:  place of safety, boarding the bus, bullying, how to sit properly, and behavior on the bus,” Cox explained. “Together, the team choreographed the dance portion of the video.”    

(As an example, one of the lyrics is, “Watch the driver very closely — she’ll make sure it’s safe to board.”)

A local camera crew helped the transportation team flesh out the remaining concepts for the video, and the camera crew also mixed and edited the video after it was shot.  

Cox said students in more than 30 schools will see this video as part of their bus safety training, including charter schools served by the district.

“The schools show the video, and students then move by classroom onto the buses for firsthand experience on a school bus,” he said. “The safety lessons are further explained through hands-on practice on how to ride a school bus properly, how to cross the street safely before entering and after exiting the bus, and how to evacuate a school bus correctly.”

Cox also noted that South-Western City Schools is the first district in Ohio to incorporate bus safety training for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

“After an elementary student saw the video and experienced the program, the student wrote a letter to his principal regarding the importance of school bus safety,” Cox added. (To read the letter, click here.)

South-Western City Schools’ “School Bus Jive” video is below. The audio recording was done by Zak Oday. The video/editing was done by Colton Bowshier, and the aerial video was recorded by Cyler McClure.