Leon Langley from the Maryland Department of Education officially took over as the state directors association president at the end of last week’s NASDPTS Annual Meeting in Kansas City, as Iowa’s Max Christensen’s term concluded.
Langley told STN that one of his first orders of business is to assist NASDPTS in selecting a new city to host the National Congress on School Transportation (NCST), which will be held in either May or June of next year. He said he also wants to increase the partnerships with NAPT and NSTA, with the end goal of helping everyone from school bus drivers to managers to bus company owners and state directors do their jobs better.
He voiced that he hopes to increase membership for all the associations and drive more attendance to their respective national conferences.
“There’s so much you can learn and take back to your local areas, whatever conference it might be. We all need professional development,” Langley added.
Diana Hollander of Nevada accepted her nomination as president-elect. She will succeed Langley in at the conclusion of the 2016 NASDPTS Annual Meeting.
NASDPTS also named several new board members. Michael LaRocco from the Indiana Department of Education is the new treasurer, while Patrick McManamon of the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles is the new director of the Eastern region, replacing Sgt. Garfield Green of the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles, who termed out. Donnell Rosenthal of the Montana Department of Education takes over the directorship of the West region for Murrell Martin, state director of transportation at Utah’s Office of Education and the NCST steering committee chair.
Remaining on the NASDPTS board for one more year are Tim Camp of the South Carolina Department of Education as the South region director and Lt. Brian Reu of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety as the Midwest region director.
Jeff Vrabel, Sr., of the Ohio Association for Pupil Transportation is the new State and National Association Council (SNAC) chair and Steve Gardner, national accounts manager at Navistar/IC Bus, is the new Supplier Council chair.
In other NASDPTS news, Bob Riley received a special award from the board in recognition of his service to the association and industry. Riley retired in July as executive director, a post he filled for the past seven years. Prior to that, he was a school district transportation director in Palm Beach County, Florida and was the state director of Maryland and Wyoming. Riley also received a recognition award from the Transportation Security Administration and GM William Arrington as well as one of two School Bus Champion awards from the American School Bus Council.
