Rick Geifer sat in his office chair last week and used the mouse to pull up the bus schedule on his computer screen for the remainder of the year.
Beyond regular bus routes in the morning and afternoon for the final month, there were 106 activities scheduled, taking students to softball, baseball, track, music competitions, club competitions, academic competitions, and fun field trips.
Just one of those activities can require a lot of buses and drivers. For example, a field trip for all Guthridge students to go to Pittsburg from 8:40 to 2:30 will require five buses. At the same time students are heading to Fort Scott to track.
Out of all those activities Geifer has scheduled buses for, he said he has only run into one conflict. That is amazing when one considers the district only has four activity buses. The rest are route buses that can only be used for activities in the hours between and after when they are required to be running their morning and afternoon routes.
“I’ve worked in three different school districts, and this is the smoothest operating one I have seen,” he said. “We have buses running day and night, now until the end of the year. It quickly adds up. “I can’t afford for a bus to break down on some of those days.”
He and his drivers help ensure everything is safe and operational to the best of their abilities. Even if he had more buses to help manage the trips, Geifer said he doesn’t have the drivers. He’s lost five drivers since school started and he’s only been able to replace one.
“With what we have to do, we just barely have enough bus drivers,” Geifer said. “It’s not just here in Parsons, Kansas. It’s everywhere.”
Given the situation, he is very thankful for the great group of drivers he’s got.
Drivers often leave because even though they get benefits, they don’t get enough hours to support a family. A lot of farmers used to drive buses, but today they either have had to expand their operations or must work a second full-time job.
“Most of my drivers are stay at home moms or are retired people who have another source of income,” Geifer said.
Finding those persons can even be hard, as a lot of people think it is too hard to get a CDL license.
Geifer said it is just like anything else, if you make up your mind to do it, you can do it.
Bus driver Amber Klnowski agreed.
“I love kids. I’ve always loved kids. ... I used to tell my husband for years, ‘Someday I want to be that mom who hauls around a million kids. He always thought it was funny until a friend of his said, ‘Why doesn’t she be a bus driver?’” she said.
Geifer made her a bus monitor and began training her to be a driver.
“I went through the training. COVID hit. I remember we were on our way to Chanute and we got notice they were shutting down the DMV’s. I asked God, ‘If this is really where you want me to be, then you will make this happen. When we got there, the lady said, ‘We got notice to shut down, but since you drove, I’m going to go ahead and let you do your test,” Klnowski said. “Everyone told me ‘No one ever passes the first time. Don’t expect to pass the first time.’ I went out there and did my test the first time and she said, ‘You passed.’ Then I said, ‘This is where God wants me.’”
Adam Brubaker said when people look out at the world they can see a great deal in humanity to disappoint them. To be around the children, however, is to be around people who are real and genuine, he said.
“They are fun. If they have a smile, I will give them a smile, or I will try to make their day if they are feeling a little sad. It makes you feel good,” Brubaker said.
Trisha Robb has driven the Special Education bus since Parsons took over its own bussing. She summed up her reason for driving a bus in a few sentences. A few weeks ago, she lost her fiancé and she came back to work as an out.
“So, the kids helped with that. I have one that every day he gets on the bus, he’s a quiet reserved kid. He doesn’t hardly say anything. I guess, I don’t know if something said I needed it that day, but he suddenly started talking and when he gets off the bus, he gives me a big ol’ smile. How can we not enjoy it, even though we are just driving. It’s things like that that make me like what I do. … Sometimes the kids can be a handful. You just have to find that connection.”