A watercolor rendition of the 1960s-model school bus that Allan Jones drove during the start of his career was sold at auction during the Washington Pupil Transportation Conference last month, with proceeds going toward continuing education for association members.
Jones, now the director of student transportation at the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, drove the Wayne school bus built on an International chassis during the 1977-1978 school year. At the time, he said the bus was at least 10 years old. He added that the bus was powered by a gasoline engine and four-speed manual transmission. It had standard steel sheet metal seat backs and chrome steel seat frames
Jones used Faber Castell oil-based colored pencils on 14-inch by 17-inch Canson Bristol board to depict the inside of the bus looking towards his driver seat, giving the perspective of one of his students.
“(The) driver seat was hard mounted on a steel column… adjusted up and down, but no shock absorption,” he recalled.
Greg Bryson, owner and president of Bryson Bus Sales, purchased the painting for $400.
Marco DiCicco, supervisor of transportation for Bremerton School District and the Washington Assocation of Pupil Transportation’s scholarship committee chair, as well as board representative for ESD 112, told STN that approximately 25 items were auctioned. The revenue accounted for approximately $4,000 for two Entry-Level Driver Instructor Trainer scholarships, awarded to school bus driver and trainer Sabrina Warren of Stanwood-Camano School District and mechanic Shawn Colter of Orient School District and Inchelium School District, and $1,000 for the Higher Education Student Scholarship, which went to graduating high school senior Forrest Kimbler of Olympia School District.
The auction also contributed $1,600 for two scholarships for the Central Washington University Pupil Transportation Management Training Program, a joint effort between OSPI, Central Washington and WAPT created in 1989. The program requires a three-year commitment from students to attend 30-hour courses each July at CWU, with the option for a fourth year. The one-week course each summer, which was was underway at this report, is designed as a path toward obtaining a supervisory role at a school district. It focuses on improving students’ overall knowledge of the student transportation industry, along with honing leadership and communication skills.
“We needed to create a method for teaching people how to become transportation suepervisors,” explained DiCicco, who himself is a graduate of the CWU course. “A lot of people come up up through the ranks but now more than ever it’s taking a different set of skills. It’s one thing being a driver or being a dispatcher, but now you need a background on law, finance and contract negotiations. That’s what this program does.”
He said that students return in October to give a presentation to class on what they learned that year and how they applied it to their district’s operations, adding that to this day he utilizes his research and presentations to help guide Bremerton’s operations.
