Let’s Talk Trash! MAY / JUNE 2021
11
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What’s it like to be
Joshua Hinerman Director of Transportation
Where were you born? I was born in Medina, Ohio. What School did you attend? I attended school at Cornersville High School and graduated in 2001. I attended K-12th grade all in the same school and missed no days of school my entire time in school! What was your favorite Subject in school? Literature and/or History. Both subjects allow one to take a journey into where we have come from and if we apply the lessons learned will allow us not to repeat the mistakes of years gone by. Both subjects allow us to better understand the world we live in. How did you become the director of transportation? I began my journey as a teacher assistant working with severely handicapped students and then obtained my CDL to drive a school bus. I drove the bus for many years as I attended college. When I finished my collegiate studies, I applied for transportation director jobs around the state. I was fortunate enough to join Robertson County in 2015! I have worked in the public schools going on 20 years now! What is the most exciting thing about your job? Nothing brings me greater happiness than seeing a young student get on the bus for the first time! Working in school transportation allows me to change the life trajectory of the students we serve. We provide a gateway for our students to obtain an education. We remove barriers to our student’s success by operating these majestic yellow vehicles daily and I am thankful to the Lord for this daily! School transportation professionals must not be viewed as support personnel but rather as essential professionals. I want our readers to know that our Educators are the beautiful flower petals of the American Public School System, but school transportation is the stem without which education would not take place! School buses have been the means to transform our society by leading the charge of integrating our schools and ensuring that all students have access to a free and appropriate education. I enjoy helping others become yellow school bus champions!
How many buses do you have? How many kids ride a bus in RC? 112 buses! No more than 90 students can ride on a bus at any given time. Robertson County transports around 7,000 students to and from school daily including after school programs, athletic trips, and other educational outings. The school transportation department in Robertson County is the largest support department with nearly 200 employees assigned to work daily. How much does a bus cost? Presently, a school bus will cost around $98,000 to $105,000 depending on added safety equipment. A small specially equipped bus (Special Education Bus) will cost between $70,000 to 85,000 depending on specialized equipment and lift system. Why are School Buses Yellow? There are two reasons that buses are yellow today. In the early days of the school transportation, local school districts made use of various modes of transportation to get children to and from school on vehicles that were painted various colors. A study was completed that determined that if all buses were built using the same standards and were painted yellow this would create a safer mode of transportation and would reduce the cost of building them. The color National School Bus Yellow Chrome was selected because the black lettering on the yellow background is highly visible to the motoring public and National School Bus Yellow Chrome can only be used to paint school buses as no other mode of transportation may use this color. The yellow school bus is thus the iconic emblem of the American Public School System! What would happen if there were no buses? Every school bus on the road removes 36 cars off the road. In Robertson County that equates to 4,000 less automobiles on our roads. School buses are the safest form of transportation to and from school. Removing them from operation would increase air pollution, create more congested roads, longer car rider lines at our schools, and would cost parents more money in fuel cost to transport their children to and from school.
Do you know when and where schools had the first bus transportation and why? Students have been getting to school since the early 1800’s on various modes of travel. The one most used in the late 1800’s was referred to as a school hack. These were not buses as we think of them today and were not powered by engines but rather were horse drawn carriages. These were not utilized by many students as the expectation in the early history of public education up to the 1920’s was that students would walk to local one room schoolhouses. When larger community schools began being built there was a need to bus students greater distances. The earliest enclosed school bus I know of is the 1927 Blue Bird school bus. After it was built, the rest is history and buses have become more advanced since that day. School buses today look very similar to the very first bus built because the yellow school bus was designed for safety and very little has been done to modify it except for safety improvements. Do you have a special message for the kids? You are a unique individual who has much to contribute to this world we share together. I would tell students that I believe that the greatest happiness in life is found in service. We must learn to forget ourselves and serve others and in doing this we can accomplish great things in life. Two questions have guided me most of my life? What will my contribution be to society and how will history remember me?. We each leave a legacy, good or bad so I implore them to make a good name for themselves and leave this world just a little better than it is today!
Joshua was a kid just like you!
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