School Bus Fleet, October 2018

36 SCHOOL BUS FLEET OCTOBER 2018 WWW SCHOOLBUSFLEET COM NEWS TOP 100 Winston Salem Forsyth Highlights School Bus Garage Team By Kim Underwood WINSTON SALEM N C During the summer months mechanics at the school bus garage continue their work As mechanics said Shop Foreman Alan Loflin its their responsibility to see that students are transported to and from school safely During the summer the 35 mechanics at the bus garage on Carver School Road have been repairing buses inspecting buses taking care of the buses being used for summer programs and readying buses for the new school year which began Aug 27 The school districts buses have to be inspected every month That includes buses parked for the summer The bus inspection list has about 50 items on it Loflin said Altogether though there are more than 400 issues that could mean that a bus cannot be driven until the problem is fixed It could be as simple as a bolt missing from a seat When a bus is in service preventive maintenance is done every 15000 miles On an early August morning Darrell Taylor the executive director of transportation for Winston Salem Forsyth County Schools gave an informal tour of the bus garage that included a stop at the parts department which contains about 3000 different parts The required documentation is quite extensive Taylor said If say an alternator is replaced on a bus records have to be kept showing which alternator went on which bus The men in the parts department also have to keep track of such things as the samples of oil taken from buses that are being sent for analysis These guys keep up with all of that Assistant Director of Transportation Cris Cox said Summer responsibilities for the men in the garage also include taking care of such things as cleaning the integrated seats that enable young children attending such programs as EC Exceptional Children pre kindergarten to ride a school bus With the districts newer buses seats at the front can be used as integrated seats During the regular school year to ensure that mechanics are available throughout the times that buses are on the road the first shift of mechanics comes in at 5 a m and works until about 2 p m and the second shift comes in at 9 a m and stays until the final bus is parked about 6 p m School buses continued to roll during the summer months Each school day 93 buses went out to pick up students participating in the RISE Reaching Incredible Success Every day Summer Camp and the rising first graders who participated in Pathway to One a new program that helps prepare students for first grade Driving a school bus is quite a challenge The districts new buses come with back up cameras which are a helpful tool Also with buses extending about 11 feet beyond the rear tire drivers have to take care when making turns And while theyre driving bus drivers have to be aware of all the student riders On an elementary school route a bus could have up to 72 riders Its a hard and difficult job at times Taylor said With the start of the school year many more buses will be going out each school day During the 2017 18 school year 404 regular buses carried about 37000 students roughly two thirds of the students enrolled in the school system to and from school each day Most bus drivers have three routes in the morning one middle one elementary one high school and another three in the afternoon With buses going to and from the districts career center during the day and activity buses taking students on field trips and such school buses are running throughout the day Including activity buses Winston Salem Forsyth County Schools had 514 buses in service last school year During the course of the school year the yellow buses drove a total of 6057668 miles and activity buses drove another 535433 miles These days buses get 6 to 7 miles a gallon and on any given day the Winston Salem Forsyth County Schools buses use about 6000 gallons of fuel After 20 years a school bus is retired if it has more than 150000 miles on it Buses that are 15 to 20 years old are retired if they have 250000 miles on them Taylor also talked about the importance of drivers stopping when buses have the stop arm out Passing a bus with its stop arm out endangers students Taylor said No one wants to see a child injured by a motorist passing a stopped school bus During the 2017 18 school year the districts school bus drivers reported 187 instances of drivers in the community driving past a bus that had its stop arm extended In 127 cases the bus drivers were able to take down such information as a license plate and report the violation to authorities Winston Salem Forsyth County Schools is ranked No 49 on the Top 100 with 400 route buses During the summer mechanics at Winston Salem Forsyth County Schools were busy repairing and inspecting buses and getting them ready for the new school year Editors note As families prepared to send their children back to school Winston Salem Forsyth County Schools informed the community about how the districts maintenance team was preparing school buses for the new year The article reprinted here with permission was written by Kim Underwood the districts communications specialist