DES MOINES, Iowa – The 16th National Congress on School Transportation opened Sunday evening with its 300 delegates being urged to set aside local and state concerns in order to set the best safety standards for the entire nation.
Delivering the charge to delegates who will meet through Wednesday, Bill Loshbough, representing the National Association for Pupil Transportation, told delegates they had become part of the NCST’s tradition dating back to 1939. That year, Frank W. Cyr called the first national school bus standards conference, held at Teachers College at Columbia University. Among the results was the approval of school bus chrome yellow that identifies the iconic vehicles on roads and highways throughout North America.
“Take off your district hat, take off your state hat and put on your national hat,” implored Loshbough, a former NCST steering committee chair who was inducted into the NAPT Hall of Fame last fall. “I challenge you to think outside the box. Just because we’ve done it this way since 1939 doesn’t mean it’s right in today’s world.
“So many times we hear, ‘I don’t want this to be passed because I’ll never be able to implement it because we don’t have any money.’ (That’s) not thinking outside the box. I challenge you to do what is best for the industry, not necessarily those issues you have at home that you might have to work on.”
The Congress, which has convened every five years since 1980, had been held in Warrensburg, Missouri for the past 30 years. It was moved to Des Moines after the University of Central Missouri and Missouri Safety Center announced last fall that they could no longer host the event or publish the National School Transportation Specifications & Procedures manual that serves as the basis for school bus and student transportation regulations as well as laws for states.
Sunday’s opening ceremonies included a tribute to the former hosts, including the presentation of an award for exceptional service to the NCST, which was accepted by Tiffany Daily, the center’s communications programs coordinator.
Don Carnahan, a driving force behind previous Congresses and a 2006 National Association for Pupil Transportation Hall of Fame inductee, will be honored posthumously Tuesday evening. He passed away suddenly last fall while serving as NAPT president. He also served as president of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation and was the retired state director of transportation at the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
The delegates also heard from Clemencia Spirrizzi, 2015 Iowa Teacher of the Year, who underscored the difference-making role that school transportation can have in children’s lives. A native of Ecuador, she recalled walking to school and viewing the school bus as “almost magical.”
Student transportation represents equality, providing students from all economic backgrounds with the opportunity to learn and succeed. Spirrizzi told the story of a poor girl who was missing out on life-changing activities because she did not qualify for transportation through a dangerous neighborhood early in the morning or late in the day. She encouraged delegates to recognize the safety value of more flexible approaches to student transportation.
Murrell Martin, the current steering committee chair and state director for Utah, noted that the first Congress produced a groundbreaking but brief document at a time when fewer than 4 million students were transported on 86,099 buses nationwide. Today, more than 25 million students are transported each day on more than 480,000 buses and millions more rely on bus transportation for extracurricular activities.
Martin encouraged delegates to go beyond creating the best possible 16th specifications and procedures manual and “put it to good use over the next five years.”
Meanwhile, Leon Langley, sitting president of NASDPTS and the state director at the Maryland Department of Education, said the more than 300 registered attendees set an NCST record.
“Iowa is the new home of NCST and we are no a part of Hawkeye Nation,” he told delegates.
A show of hands by state delegates and others indicated two-thirds were attending their first NCST.
