WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.319 Narrator: This is John Powell, a bus driver entering his fifth year in the Dysart Unified School District. 00:00:07.319 --> 00:00:12.030 He's an Arizona native, and has been serving as a pastor in the local 00:00:12.030 --> 00:00:18.029 community for the past 30 years. He originally joined Dysart as a way to 00:00:18.029 --> 00:00:22.890 supplement his income, but he quickly became attached to the children and 00:00:22.890 --> 00:00:26.220 embraced his role in helping with their education. 00:00:26.220 --> 00:00:31.890 John: I view it as, how would I want my children or my grandchildren to be treated 00:00:31.890 --> 00:00:39.239 if they were riding my bus. And I try to treat those, the students with that same 00:00:39.239 --> 00:00:47.059 respect and care that I would give to a child of mine, or now i can say grandchildren. 00:00:47.060 --> 00:00:53.060 Narrator: John starts his day in the early morning hours, usually at 5:00 or 5:30 a.m. 00:00:53.060 --> 00:00:57.560 John: First thing that we do is we check our mailboxes to see if there's any 00:00:57.570 --> 00:01:02.219 information that we need concerning our routes before we go out on our routes. 00:01:02.220 --> 00:01:09.780 We pick up our keys to our bus, come out to our bus, and we do what is called pretripping 00:01:09.780 --> 00:01:16.170 the bus. Every bus driver is responsible, not just for Dysart, but by 00:01:16.170 --> 00:01:21.720 state regulations, that we inspect the buses before we take them out on the 00:01:21.720 --> 00:01:26.440 road to transport students or any passengers with them. 00:01:26.440 --> 00:01:29.060 So the pre-trip is very important. 00:01:29.070 --> 00:01:36.090 Narrator: John attributes his success as a driver and his safety record to the training provided to him. 00:01:36.090 --> 00:01:41.770 John: The biggest thing that I think any driver has to keep in mind is safety. 00:01:41.770 --> 00:01:45.909 Certainly safety as you're traveling down the road, but safety of those that 00:01:45.909 --> 00:01:50.740 you're transporting. Dysart gives excellent training, and I'm not just 00:01:50.740 --> 00:01:56.289 saying that. They do give very good training on the pre-trip, so that even 00:01:56.289 --> 00:02:02.469 if a person has no experience whatsoever, they have a staff that works with them 00:02:02.469 --> 00:02:08.530 very well, because i did not have any school bus driving experience. I had some 00:02:08.530 --> 00:02:13.299 driving experience but no school bus driving experience. So they work with you 00:02:13.299 --> 00:02:20.399 to learn the pre-trip and actually to help you get your CDL in all of those things. 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:24.600 Narrator: Developing a rapport with the students and being more than just a 00:02:24.610 --> 00:02:29.150 driver is something John mentions over and over again. 00:02:29.150 --> 00:02:34.320 He says the two most important things a bus driver needs to be able to do their 00:02:34.329 --> 00:02:41.589 job effectively is a love of children and to genuinely care about their well-being. 00:02:41.590 --> 00:02:47.319 John: I always tell my students that if something's on your mind or something's 00:02:47.319 --> 00:02:51.430 happening you can come to the bus. Doesn't mean that I can instantly solve 00:02:51.430 --> 00:02:54.519 the problems, but I will do my best to help you. 00:02:54.519 --> 00:02:58.389 So I looked out, I was at a school and students that were running. They shouldn't 00:02:58.389 --> 00:03:04.750 have been. They were in a concreted area, and a student tripped about 10 yards maybe from the bus. 00:03:04.750 --> 00:03:10.389 Bam! I could see he hit his mouth. He jumped up and ran straight to the bus crying, 00:03:10.389 --> 00:03:16.329 Mr. Bus Driver, Mr. Bus Driver. His first thought was that the bus driver said he 00:03:16.329 --> 00:03:22.120 would help me. So I did have to summon school personnel. It happened on the school 00:03:22.120 --> 00:03:27.430 grounds so they needed to see about him. But I was touched that the student had 00:03:27.430 --> 00:03:33.130 enough trust in me that he could come no matter what happened. He had been injured. 00:03:33.130 --> 00:03:36.650 But he knew the bus driver will see about him. 00:03:38.380 --> 00:03:42.340 I believe that I'm helping these students. 00:03:42.340 --> 00:03:48.639 They need to go to school. I'm a part of the process. I get them to and 00:03:48.639 --> 00:03:54.059 from school. And as long as i can do that on a continuous basis, 00:03:54.060 --> 00:03:56.900 I think that I'm doing something positive.