When Jim Beekman took the reins of Orange County Public Schools’ transportation department in 2010, he “inherited some issues,” as he puts it.

To save money in routing, the Orlando, Florida-based district had recently flipped high school and middle school bell times, but the change didn’t go over smoothly.

“It was rolled out with not much notification, and it was really disruptive to the community,” Beekman says. “It prompted a lot of bad media, and some board members were very upset with the process.”

In the wake of that fiasco, an outside firm was brought in to audit the district’s transportation department — which runs one of the nation’s largest public school bus fleets. The audit identified a number of areas for potential improvement.

As Beekman took on the role of senior director of transportation services for Orange County, he says, “I inherited some issues and a lot of recommendations sitting on the table, but I also came into an awesome group of folks that wanted to do the job right.”

That spirit of championing and supporting his staff members helped Beekman galvanize the department and implement numerous improvements. The results included increased efficiency, multi-million-dollar savings and high staff morale.

For his efforts to effect positive changes in school transportation throughout his career, School Bus Fleet named Beekman its 2014 Administrator of the Year. He became the 41st pupil transportation leader to receive the award, which was presented at the National Association for Pupil Transportation Summit on Monday afternoon.

KPIs, life-cycle costs
One of Beekman’s primary tools for driving change in the Orange County Public Schools transportation department was key performance indicators (KPIs).

The department, which runs about 903 route buses and transports 72,000 students daily, began tracking items like bus on-time arrival, idling, average bus occupancy, road-call rate and staff overtime. The data were used to create scorecards for the various sections of transportation, such as routing and fleet maintenance. Also, Beekman compared the department’s KPIs to data from the Council of Great City Schools and other industry standards.

Another of Beekman’s initiatives to increase efficiency and save money targeted school bus purchasing. Florida uses a school bus menu bidding program, and Beekman developed a system to evaluate the options on that menu, with a particular focus on fuel economy and other factors that could reduce the cost of ownership over the life of the bus.

Charlie Hood, who was the Florida state director of pupil transportation during most of Beekman’s tenure at Orange County, notes that Beekman’s approach to the state menu bid “identified the buses most likely to provide Orange County low life-cycle cost for the district and taxpayers.”

Millions in savings
The transportation changes that Beekman spearheaded at Orange County yielded impressive savings.

For example, in the 2012-13 school year, the transportation department measured 100% of its route buses for idling, which resulted in reducing idling time from 520.7 hours per school day to 442.5 hours per school day.

The anti-idling initiative, along with utilizing biodiesel and purchasing more fuel-efficient buses, led to an overall reduction of 151,788 gallons of diesel fuel in the 2012-13 school year. The economic benefit was a fuel cost avoidance of $538,847, and the environmental benefit was a reduction of 1,503 metric tons of carbon matter output.

Beekman is quick to share the credit for Orange County’s transportation improvements with his staff: “It was a ‘we’ effort,” he says. He also notes that he had essential support from his superiors, such as chief operating officer Michael Eugene, who Beekman says was “very systematic about getting the changes in place.”

From mechanic to manager
Beekman has more than 30 years of experience in the pupil transportation industry. He started in 1983 as a diesel mechanic for the School District of Osceola County (Fla.).

Beekman moved up the ranks at Osceola, eventually becoming director of transportation. He also got involved in the Florida Association for Pupil Transportation, working on various committees and serving a term as president.

In October, Beekman left Orange County Public Schools to take on a new challenge. He was recruited by Hillsborough County (Fla.) Public Schools to serve as the district’s new general manager of transportation.

Hillsborough transportation has had its share of difficulties recently — the department made headlines earlier this year for a flurry of issues, such as staff turmoil and an aging fleet — but Beekman is optimistic about the potential to make improvements there.

“This is probably the piece that convinced me to come [to Hillsborough]: There have been significant issues here, but the superintendent and deputy superintendent are committed to getting them fixed,” Beekman says. “It’s a phenomenal group of leaders here.”

An in-depth profile of Beekman will appear in the January issue of SBF.