By SEAMUS SHINNERS
I write to express my concern over the proposed Traverse City Area Public Schools budget cut that will eliminate special education transportation that has been provided by the district's Transportation Department throughout the years.
For more than 35 years, I have been a district school bus driver. As you might imagine, I have come to know nearly every road in our district, and have had the good fortune of sharing the morning sunrise with many, if not all, of the students of our school district as we roll every morning to school.
I am one of 130 drivers and 29 aides who make up the transportation family. We represent a true cross-section of our community, coming from a variety of backgrounds, ranging from retired military, mailmen, firemen, Cone Drive employees, former state hospital workers, business owners and many retired professional men and women.
While we may be diverse, we share one common purpose: a love of children and their daily well-being as we transport them to school and back home again. This commitment to provide a safe ride is one that we strive to honor as we travel more than 10,000 miles every day with our students.
Within our family are the drivers and aides who provide transportation for special needs students. This can be both a challenging and demanding assignment, as these students have a wide range of physical, emotional and/or medical disabilities that require special attention on a nearly constant basis.
Rather than cringe from the assignment, these drivers and aides welcome the challenge and bring their combined talent and knowledge to create a team that provides a caring and compassionate ride for these special needs students. They create a close bond with each child. It seems that as every child boards the bus, he or she becomes part of this mobile family unit as it rolls down the road.
The aides make a daily effort to engage with the students in a variety of ways, from celebrating birthdays, singing songs, reading stories, or simply sharing a smile or hug.
More importantly, these aides have developed the skills and knowledge to deal with the various medical needs of each child. They can respond quickly to medical moments and solve a problem before it becomes a medical emergency. These efforts create a positive learning experience for that child every day as he or she boards the bus. While some may refer to this child as a special needs child, these drivers and aides only see this child as someone "special."
It would be a great tragedy to see the Traverse City School Board adopt this budget cut. If implemented, this cut would destroy the sense of community, compassion and connection that our drivers and aides create with these special needs students and their parents.
The school board should honor its long-standing commitment and maintain district-based transportation of our students and a proven history of caring for our special needs children. Any less will harm our most vulnerable students.
About the author: Seamus Shinners of Traverse City Michigan is president of the Traverse City Transportation Association bus drivers' union. He is the current president of the Central Neighborhood Association.
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