The Transportation Director of Loudoun County Public Schools in northern Virginia said school buses “ran like clockwork” Monday to and from a newly-constructed middle school dedicated to his predecessor, who passed away suddenly last summer.
The middle school bears the name of J. Michael Lunsford, Loudoun County’s transportation director of 15 years until July 8, 2010.
“I couldn’t be more proud of a group of individuals,” said Al Hampton, Loudoun County’s current transportation director. “We really tried hard.”
That hard work entailed 15 to 16 hours of work a day by transportation employees over the past three weeks, including routers and lead drivers, to ensure the additional bus rides went off without a hitch. Hampton added that the district has seen an increase of 3,000 new students each school year for the past decade. An estimated 1,190 students are attending the new Lunsford Middle School, which has a capacity of 1,350.
As reported in the April 2011 edition of School Transportation News, Lunsford began his career with the district in 1968 as a 16-year-old bus driver. Later, Lunsford rose the ranks of computer operator, computer program and transportation operations supervisor before being named the transportation director in 1995.
Under Lunsford’sswatch, the district began installing lap/shoulder seat belts throughout the fleet in 2008. He also piloted the first CNG school bus in Virginia and managed the implementation of school bus video cameras, which are now installed in nearly all of the district’s 775 school buses.
