Durham accepting applications for bus drivers, ready to set the tone for a student’s day at school

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - In the rush to get kids and parents ready for back to school, the role of bus drivers is often overlooked.

William Donavan, the general manager of Frenship Durham School Services, explains the impact bus drivers have on a student’s day.

“This is an amazing career. It’s not just a career for someone that wants to be part-time, it’s a career for anybody who wants to make a difference in a child’s life,” Donavan said.

Donavan has been working at Frenship Durham School Services since 2020, acting as the general manager for nearly a year, but he’s loved buses, and the people who drive them, for years.

“I grew up riding the bus; my aunt Verna drove buses for 37 years,” Donavan said. “I lived on the bus with her and that’s how I knew buses were going to be my thing.”

Donavan said he had no idea how many life lessons the bus would teach him.

“I would go early before school and sweep her bus and stay after she parked it and kept it clean,” Donavan said. “It taught me a lot of things I needed to know.”

Now, after years of driving kids to and from school and field trips, Donavan says seeing the impact those drivers have on students never gets old.

“Everybody has got to realize the bus driver and the bus is the first and last face that the child sees every single day before school,” Donavan said. “They set the tone for the kids’ school day, and they also set the tone for how the kids are going to feel once they get off the bus.”

However, finding drivers who share that mindset has been difficult over the last few years.

“The biggest struggle that we seem to be having here in Lubbock is the lack of applications. We are just seeing a really slow tick of them coming in,” Donavan said.

The situation is a growing concern, not only for drivers, like Donavan, but for students as well.

“They might have a bad day at school then they get on and see their favorite driver and that just changes their whole attitude,” Donavan said.

Those who are interested in applying to become a bus driver can click here.

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