NAPT ACTS 2025: A Recap in Photos

In the session, "Developing Leaders Behind the Wheel: Growing Internal Talent in Transportation," Bernando Brown of DeKalb County School District discussed how to identify, support, and promote leadership from within, covering the importance of mentorship, training programs, and succession planning.

Photo: Elora Haynes

Kellie Doyle Bailey, an emotional intelligence specialist with Calm Cool Kids Educate, not only hosted a booth to showcase her multiple books helping children learn to cope with their feelings, but she also shared a session on how to conduct your own personal pre-trip.

Photos: Amanda Huggett

The final full day’s evening event sponsored by IC Bus let attendees claim their annual jackets and spend a night together over music, dancing, dinner, and drinks.

Photos: Amanda Huggett

In a State of the Industry presentation, National Student Transportation Association (NSTA) Executive Director Curt Macysyn recognized the recent passing of Blake Krapf, recapped the School Bus Driver International Safety Competition (SBDISC) and announced a new driver eligibility update, and discussed federal advocacy updates, including the non-domiciled CDLs and CLPs, the FMCSA extension on paper medical certificates, DOT drug testing, new legislation, and the impact of tariffs. NASDPTS Executive Director Ronna Weber also presented on NCST and the association’s work on addressing illegal passing.

Photo: Amanda Huggett

Teena Mitchell, then-current president of NAPT (pictured at right), provided opening remarks to 2025 ACTS attendees before beginning the business meeting. The group also provided kudos to the work of the Michigan Association for Pupil Transportation and provided a viewing of the new illegal passing PSA featuring RFK Racing driver Ryan Preece.

Keith Kaup, incoming NAPT president of Pearland ISD (pictured at podium), also gave an update on the recent election.

Photo: Amanda Huggett

Peter Manella, NAPT’s public policy liaison, provided an update on the federal landscape, covering new FMCSA and NHTSA administrators, grants and voucher programs, court cases, budgets, pending legislation, and more.

Photo: Amanda Huggett

After each region met separately, all came together for a trivia game that tested each region’s knowledge of NAPT and industry facts. Yes, it was as competitive as it was fun!

Photos: Amanda Huggett

A grand opening reception with exhibitors took place just outside the expo hall for attendees to kick back together after the first full day together.

Photos: Amanda Huggett and Elora Haynes

Molly McGee Hewitt presented the 2025 Hall of Fame Award, inducting Alex Robinson to the prestigious group of industry professionals. Induction into the NAPT Hall of Fame represents the highest honor that NAPT bestows on an individual: honorees must meet the highest standards of personal and professional integrity, including distinguished service to both the industry and the association.

Photo: Amanda Huggett

In an "Effective Performance Evaluations" workshop, School Bus Training's Denny Coughlin shared keys for handling annual reviews with ease. Tips included that nothing revealed in an evaluation should be a surprise, and that they should be done regularly. Remember that documents should be confidential, but they are also subject to open records. Ask your team members what would make their jobs more interesting and how they want to grow in their roles.

Photo: Amanda Huggett

Regional assemblies brought together members in each NAPT region to meet each other in a smaller group setting. Here, Rosalyn Vann-Jackson conducted a get-to-know-you activity for Region 4, asking folks to introduce themselves and a new friend, before sharing general feedback.

Photo: Amanda Huggett

Teena Mitchell presented NAPT CEO and Executive Director Molly McGee Hewitt and her husband Peter Hewitt the 2025 President’s Award.

Photo: Amanda Huggett

Your School Bus Fleet team had a booth at the trade show and was on the ground meeting with exhibitors to find out what’s new to share with you! Pictured here is First Light Safety Products and Transfinder’s booths on bottom.

Photos: Amanda Huggett

At the NAPT QuikConnect Café, marketplace members offered snacks, drinks, and conversation between sessions.

Photo: Amanda Huggett

The State of the Industry also welcomed a panel of four pros to explore the evolving transportation needs of vulnerable student populations, including the approx. 1.2 million experiencing homelessness. Here, Keith Kaup talks about not making assumptions that a student or family is working the system. “I think one of the biggest challenges that we face in serving students through McKinney Vento is perception,” he said. “Unfortunately, sometimes our staff members, our drivers, who are completely focused on their kids, don't always understand that some kids aren't in the same environment as all of the rest. They don't realize that there are unique needs that some of these students are facing and need to be met. That's really important that you work with your team to share with them that they need to be attentive to what's missing for these students. … We've got turn it around, that it's not our place as a service provider to make a judgment call. It's our place to meet the need.”

Photo: Amanda Huggett

The 2025 National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT) Annual Conference and Trade Show (ACTS) was held at DeVos Place in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4. Save the date for next year: NAPT ACTS will be in Louisville, Kentucky, from Oct. 3-7, 2026.

Photo: Amanda Huggett

At the conference, Molly McGee Hewitt announced a new 14-month public awareness campaign kicking off in January 2026 called Driven Together. It’s aimed at educating the public about the importance and safety of the yellow school bus with a calendar of specific objectives, taglines, and targeted audiences. This will include messaging on driver heroes, safety, trust, partnerships, policy, technology, and more. The campaign will include digital toolkits, PSAs, media relations, social media, community engagement, and government relations, to raise awareness and support for the school bus industry on a national level.

Photo: Amanda Huggett

Throughout the event, Professional Development Series (PDS) sessions and workshops were held to help NAPT members brush up on their skills and knowledge and achieve industry certification. Here, Alex Robinson presents “PDS 806: Transportation Leadership Proficiencies for Serving Children with Disabilities.”

Photo: Amanda Huggett

Attendees were able to opt in to various Ride & Drive Lunch N' Learns throughout the event. On Nov. 3, IC Bus and Transfinder hosted theirs.

Photos: Amanda Huggett

Kaup swore in new officers for both the association and the foundation.

Photo: Amanda Huggett

The NAPT staff and board members cut the ribbon to the 2025 trade show floor.

Photo: Elora Haynes

NAPT's 2025 Awards recognized Stephanie Walker and Denny Coughlin (bottom) for the Distinguished Service Award; Michelle Summers (top middle) for the Continuing Education Award; Sherri Zulick (top right) for the School Bus Driver Training & Safety Award; Katherine Michael (top left) for the Special Needs Transportation Award; and Crystal Foster and Joclyn Johnson for the Heroism Award.

Photos: Amanda Huggett

In an inspiring and heartfelt keynote that almost felt like a mini therapy session we all needed, Darryl Bellamy presented “FearLESS Inside.” A few of our favorite quotes: “Fear is not the enemy; inaction is.” “You don’t have to be fearless; just fear less.” “The only thing worse than failure is regret.” “The fears we hide are often the ones that connect us most.” Bellamy recommended to all writing down or talking about our fears, as acknowledging them gives them less power.

Photos: Amanda Huggett

At the Thomas Built Buses booth, we found two former Trailblazers together: AJ Yadav and Whitney Kopanko. Read their stories from 2024 and 2025!

Photo: Amanda Huggett

Sue Shutrump shares the basics of securing passengers in the session, "Meeting Student Occupant Protection Needs in All Types of School Vehicles." She covered how compartmentalization works and when it’s not enough, as well as covered federal guidelines, trainings that are available, and how to meet students’ needs.

Photo: Amanda Huggett