Owen Freese and Verlan Vos received the Tom Horn Memorial Award during the Iowa School Transportation Conference last month for their statewide work as school bus inspectors for the Iowa Department of Education (DOE).
Max Christensen, the state director of transportation with the Iowa DOE and president-elect of NASDPTS, said both Freese and Vos inspect the fleets of every school district in the state at least twice a school year.
The two men have been Iowa DOE employees since 1999.In that time, Christensen added, Freese and Vos have seen “some very good fleets, some very poor fleets and a little bit of everything in between.”
“Because of their diligence, determination, perseverance, dedication and sometimes just plain old stubbornness, the State of Iowa has a much improved and much safer school bus fleet for our students than when they first started inspecting buses 13 years ago,” Christensen said. “They’ve had compliments, complaints and even a few tools hurled their way, Yet, every day they place the safety of the children riding the school buses as their top priority.”
Reminded of the U.S. Postal Service’s motto, Christensen said Freese and Vos make their daily rounds through mud, rain, sleet, snow, ice, fog, boiling heat and freezing cold.
The Tom Horn Memorial Award is presented each year to person or persons who have shown extreme dedication and purpose in their work over the past year. Christensen called it the most prestigious award given to members of the school transportation industry in Iowa. It is named for the late founder of the Iowa Pupil Transportation Association, which along with the Iowa DOE and Iowa Association of School Boards sponosrs the annual Iowa School Transportation Conference. This year’s event was held July 16-19 in Des Moines.
