Here, we share photos submitted to us by pupil transporters throughout the country that were featured in the Snapshots department of our July and August 2011 issues. The gallery also includes photos from the Snapshots department of our September 2011 issue, which highlighted school bus manufacturer Thomas Built Buses' Zero-Waste-to-Landfill efforts.
Snapshots — Summer 2011
Utah dad Dale Price made this school year memorable for his son Rain. Each morning, he dressed up in a different costume and waved to the bus taking Rain and his classmates to school. On this day, he was a Spartan. Dale's wife, Rochelle, took photos of her husband each day and posted them on a blog she created titled "Wave at the Bus." It can be found at http://waveatthebus.blogspot.com.
This bus was first a school bus, and then it was converted into a mobile art gallery by the parents of Sarah Malawista, a teenage artist from Maryland who had come up with an idea to create an “art bus” for inner-city schools before she died in 2006. The Malawistas recently donated the bus to the forthcoming Bronx Children’s Museum in New York. The permanent museum is slated to open in a historic, city-owned castle in a park in 2013. In the meantime, the repurposed bus will bring art and other subjects to kids throughout the Bronx, with exhibits and hands-on programs on board.
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These employees at Parkway C-2 School District in Chesterfield, Mo., are getting a head start on a fun summer! Director of Transportation Will Rosa says they are waving to bus drivers on the last day of school as they leave in the afternoon.
The chassis division of Thomas Built Buses waved good-bye to waste when the last truck headed to the landfill in March 2010. It was the first of Thomas’ production lines to achieve Zero-Waste-to-Landfill (ZWTL) status. In 2011, the company was the first school bus manufacturer to achieve ZWTL operations.
Dealers are making commitments to sustainability, too. Myers Equipment Corp., the Thomas Built Buses dealer for Ohio, is now getting 75 percent of its electricity from the wind, thanks to a 50-kilowatt turbine installed at the dealer’s headquarters.
Kings Canyon Unified School District in Reedley, Calif., regularly participates in the Reedley Fiesta Parades. Kings Canyon Director of Transportation John Clements says that each year there is a different theme, and that the theme the year this photo was taken was "family." The transportation department staff members view themselves as a family, so they painted this bus like that of the Partridge Family. "The students and parents along the parade route enjoy seeing photos of their school bus drivers and our technicians on the side of the school buses we decorate for this event," Clements says. "It creates a sense of identity between our department and the community."
This Frisco (Texas) Independent School District school bus placed first in a recent Veterans Day parade, winning the "Mayor's Award," according to Kevin Vollweiler, lead mechanic at the district. In addition to the camouflage netting, the bus was decorated with American flags, the Texas state flag and a "Salute the Troops" sign.
Between 2006 and 2010, Thomas Built reduced its total annual energy consumption by 6,891 kilowatts. That’s enough electricity to power 721 homes. The company also provided the land for a local energy company to house 1,690 solar panels. The solar panel field is projected to produce enough power to sustain 41 average-size homes.
At Thomas Built, environmental leadership goes beyond developing alternative-fuel product offerings. In addition to its growing list of clean drive technologies, the company focuses on sustainable manufacturing. New and improved paint booths, reclamation of used solvent and a matured environmental management system have resulted in a 7-percent reduction of volatile organic compounds and a 48-percent reduction of hazardous air pollutants per bus in the past four years.