TOPEKA, Kan. — Debbie Romine, a longtime fixture in the Kansas state School Bus Safety Unit, will retire on Dec. 19.

For 26 years, Romine has worked in the School Bus Safety Unit, which has been part of the Kansas State Department of Education for the past 20 years and was under the state Department of Transportation before that. Romine's current position is educational/informational representative II.

The School Bus Safety Unit provides information to school districts, school bus contractors and other organizations to bolster the safe transportation of students to and from school and activities. Even beyond Kansas, the unit is known for compiling a national survey of school bus danger zone fatalities each year.

Romine has earned numerous credentials that have aided her efforts in training pupil transporters. Among other certifications, she is a child passenger safety technician, a first aid and CPR instructor, an intermediate emergency medical technician (EMT-I) and a lead trainer for the state of Kansas for the American Automobile Association’s Driver Improvement Program.

Romine said that after she retires, she plans to spend more time with family, continue volunteering as an EMT-I and pursue other community service activities.

But she won’t be leaving the pupil transportation community for long. In March, she will return to the Kansas State Department of Education in a part-time role. She will travel around the state to teach safety programs to school bus drivers.