Life Happens

Today I rode the bus.

I rode the bus because it is the first day of Kindergarten in Montpelier Public Schools and wanted to greet some of our brand new Kindergarten students for their first bus ride.

About half-way through our ride, we encountered a problem.  We had stopped to pick up students and when the bus driver tried to close the doors, they would not close.

When I rode school buses, they were operated by a handle.  The bus driver would extend the handle toward the doors and the doors would open.  To close the doors, the driver would pull the handle in toward the driver's side and the doors would close.

In 2012, the doors are operated with the push of a button.  The doors would not close.

The driver wisely pulled to the side of the road and tried to fix the doors.  In his defense, he is a bus driver; not an electrician.  He was unable to fix the problem.

After trying for a few minutes to fix the doors, it was clear they were broken.  He used the radio and called in our problem to the bus company.  They responded that another bus was on the way to our location.

The other bus arrived and was driven by one of the mechanics from the bus company.  Our driver exited our bus and continued on his route.  I stayed with the children already on our bus.

Our new driver was able to fix the problem - though I must be honest, I'm not sure how.  At one point, the bus alarm was going off.  And by alarm, I mean the horn was honking consistently and there was a beeping noise inside the bus.

Needless to say it was loud and there were some bewildered children on the bus.  At no point did our mechanic/driver exhibit anything but calm and confidence.  He moved swiftly throughout the bus, trying to both turn off the alarms and to get the doors to work.

He was successful at both.  In what I can only describe as a "reset," the alarms stopped and the doors were operational again.  In about five minutes, we were on our way to Union Elementary School.

As a teacher, I could not help but point out the determination and the poise modeled by our driver to the children.  Some of them were very concerned about being late (we were only late by about 5 minutes) and once I pointed out that they had a great excuse (bus broke down, with the Superintendent on board), they were reassured.

We arrived safely at UES, thanks to a safety conscious bus driver and a determined mechanic.  What a lesson learned today on Bus 24, before we even go to school.