Cross country coach and math teacher Toby Glavin has been driving buses since 2009. Glavin first became certified to drive at his previous school, where he drove a Type A bus for their cross country team. After moving to Liberty, Glavin was unable to drive buses due to district policies, but, as of last spring, Glavin is back behind the wheel.
Wentzville School District’s Department of Transportation sent out an email incentivising all coaches to undergo training and receive their bus driving permit. Many sports coaches such as Dan Wheeler, Tony Luedecke, Kevin Haynes, and Tom McDaniel passed the tests and can now drive a bus. The transportation department provides the training required to get certified to drive a bus.
“We spend a lot of time at the transportation department practicing skills in the parking lot, practicing driving on the roads, practicing inspecting our bus. Those are the big three parts of the CDL (Commercial Driving License) driving test,” Glavin said.
Although Glavin had previously driven a smaller bus, he still had to receive training for the larger, Type C bus. The differences between the buses are mostly in length and weight of the buses. The training is also based on the size of the bus.
“Everything on CDLs is based on weight classes,” Glavin said. “It weighs a lot more so you have to have a high level class of CDL.”
Being able to drive the bus comes with many advantages. Coaches are now able to transport teams without worrying about a bus driver being available. Previously, if a teacher wanted to take their kids on a field trip, or a sports team had an away game or practice, they weren’t always able to go, due to the shortage of drivers.
“It makes so much sense for us, that way we don’t have to wait for buses to pick up our teams,” Wheeler said. “If I want to, I can take a field trip or something like that, I don’t have to worry about getting a bus. I can just get one. So that’s pretty sweet.”
The bus driver shortage has been an ongoing issue for about five years and caused many problems with scheduling and student transportation. Poor working conditions and pay make the job undesirable to many. This hasn’t stopped Glavin, who enjoys driving the bus.
“I just enjoy driving. I would much rather drive across the country than fly, so driving is just fun to me. I really like being up high in the bus,” Glavin said.
The height of the bus seems to be an appealing factor to many, with Wheeler saying, “It’s just a matter of being cautious and driving safely, but I do like it because you’re super high up.”
With the bus driver crisis continuing in full swing, we need every bus driver we can get. Allowing coaches to train and receive their bus licenses only makes sense. This allows bus drivers to be available for more important tasks, such as driving students home and sports teams to get to events on time. Glavin can take the cross country team to practices and meets without the stress of finding a bus driver, and while making memories with his team.
