Dr. Debbie Jones knows the importance of prioritizing her staff and surrounding community, whether through a parent school choice program or dedicated housing for district personnel.
Ahead of the 2025 Superintendent of the Year being named on March 6 at the National Conference on Education in New Orleans, Louisiana, School Transportation News sat down with those in charge of transportation operations at the respective districts to gain a better understanding of how the services function. The Superintendent of the Year Award is sponsored by AASA: The School Superintendents Association along with Corebridge Financial and Sourcewell to celebrate contributions and leadership of public-school superintendents.
This year’s four finalists were selected from 49 state superintendent award winners (Hawaii was not included — STN reached out to AASA to confirm why, but Hawaii superintedenets oversee complexes, which is different than the other states) and were judged based on their exhibited leadership for learning, communication, professionalism and community involvement.
A $10,000 college scholarship will be presented in the name of the 2025 National Superintendent of the Year to a student at a high school the winning superintendent graduated from or from the school district the winner now leads.
One highlight of Bentonville Public Schools in Arkansas, where Jones serves as superintendent, is that it is fully staffed in transportation. Don Hoover, executive director of student services, lauded Transportation Director Jason Salmons and his team for their advertising and recruiting efforts.
We’re recruiting friends and colleagues and people they may go to church with, or friends from the neighborhood,” Hoover said. “We’re lucky this community responds. We’re fully staffed right now. We even have some wonderful teachers who help us out, teachers who work their full-time teaching job then help us out in the morning or the afternoon, if their schedule allows.”
Jones added another way the district has combatted the school bus driver shortage is by encouraging coaches to obtain their CDLs, so they can drive to their sporting events.
“When I came here, I was accustomed to coaches driving their bus,” Jones recalled of her previous experience. “[Bentonville] didn’t do it at the time. In fact, we wouldn’t allow it, and we needed more bus drivers.”
Jones said she started to encourage coaches, especially because home-to-school transportation is the priority. “And if that means you can’t get to your football game or baseball game because you don’t have a driver, it’s on you,” she noted. “They understand that now everyone needs a CDL [driver] on their team.”
Breaking Down Initiatives
Jones said one of the district’s biggest initiatives for transportation is related to Arkansas being a parent-choice state. Parents can enroll their children in private school, homeschool, public school, and charter schools as well as open enrollment for public school. This, she said, encourages Bentonville to be more competitive.
“We’re offering parents all kinds of different opportunities within our own school district,” she said, adding that this year Bentonville created a parent choice model for its schools downtown. “We’re a growing district of about 20,000 students and we grow a lot every year. Most of our families can afford to live out on the border of our zones.”
She explained that downtown Bentonville is very expensive. Plus, last month Walmart Home Office opened in the city, which is bringing in more people. Because people can’t afford to live downtown, she noted that four or five elementary schools don’t fill to capacity, whereas the schools closer to the district boundaries are at capacity. To draw more people to downtown schools, the district created the policy that it will provide transportation.
That also presents challenges.
“It’s hard to get enough bus drivers,” she said. “Increasing routes makes it even more difficult.”
To address this, she noted that over the past three years, Bentonville has reduced door-to-door school bus service that the community was accustomed to. Instead, the district transitioned to consolidated bus stops. Jomes said transportation is handling the new parent choice model “beautifully.”
Bentonville at a glance:
District enrollment: 19,600 students
Students transported: 12,967
Daily routes: 132
Number of drivers: 152
Coaches that have their CDL: 19
Number of school buses: 168
Total miles driven yearly (route, field trips, sporting events): 1,899,866
Another initiative is creating staff housing, due to the expensive city of Bentonville. She noted the district wants to continue to hire top-quality staff, and she wants them to be able to live in Bentonville and not elsewhere which leads to longer work commutes. As a result, she noted the district partnered with a nonprofit to design 40 teacher cottages with rent far below market that staff can live in for up to five years based on income. The monthly rent payments are then saved for the employees so that when they move out, they receive the lump sum back. This can be used as a downpayment on a home.
The staff housing will also feature a 3,000-square-foot childcare center. Jones added that she expects some transportation staff will live there.
One last initiative Jones discussed was the district’s career program. Professional career programs are popular across Arkansas, and since 2016 Bentonville has offered a nonprofessional studies program that students are transported to via the school bus.
“Our bus drivers are driving to all of these opportunities for high school kids, from their high schools to the professional studies building from the high schools the junior college — We have welding programs — so [transportation is] taking care of all of these one-off programs,” Jones explained. “We have behavior classrooms too. Some of those can be tough [trips] for drivers and for aides.”
She added that Hope Academy is a trauma-based school located outside of the district, so Bentonville doesn’t receive funds for students going there. “We provide transportation free of charge,” she said, adding that they’re losing money for this service. “But it is a service to the district because the kids are getting the help they need and they’re not being disruptive.”
Culture
Meanwhile, Hoover in student services noted that Salmons in transportation does a great job visiting and speaking with his employees. “The most important thing is a very safe and really a nurturing ride to school and from school,” he added. “The bus driver may be the first adult kids see, the first adult interaction they have in a day outside of mom and dad. And sometimes Mom and Dad are going to work [in the morning]. We obviously want our drivers to have a big smile on their face and set the tone for a good day for all the kids as they’re going to school. So, when they get to school, they’re ready to learn.”
That same welcoming culture continues once students get to school. “They have welcoming principals and teachers at the classroom doors,” Hoover continued. “It’s the next wave of people who are greeting a student every morning to make them feel special and want to be part of Bentonville schools.”
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Bentonville is continuing to run a majority of diesel and some gasoline school buses. Hoover noted that Salmons is looking into propane to determine if it’s a viable option. Bentonville doesn’t contract out any aspect of its transportation service.
In terms of technology, transportation uses several different platforms, one of which is student accountability through a badge scan system. “When the students come on, they badge on, they badge off,” Hoover explained. “It’s just a really good safety measure to have with your students. Our principals back at the campus can see that on the software program and their computers and know where their kids are at all times. And the individual parent through an app can know where their bus is on the route and when to expect their student home.”
Building Relationships with Administration, Transportation
Dr. Debbie Jones, the superintendent of Bentonville Public Schools in Arkansas and one of the four finalists for Superintendent of the Year Award, said her family has a long history in education. She shared that her dad was a teacher, coach and farmer and was on the school board at one point. She recalled being the little girl hanging out with the high school cheerleaders. She said she views being a superintendent as continuing the tradition.
Additionally, she shared her husband Dale Jones is a coach and teacher. “It’s just part of the fabric of who we are as a family. And I love it still today, because getting to be around students of different ages,” she said, adding that she taught high school but also enjoys sitting in the elementary classrooms. “It’s refreshing. It’s inspiring. When I talk with high school kids at the secondary level who are really getting started in their careers, it’s so good to see that excitement in their eyes, the curiosity and it keeps you young in this job.
“I can easily get bored in a job, and this is one of the first jobs that I’m never bored,” she continued, adding that the day to day is different every hour.
Jones – a mother of five children, the youngest of which is finishing college, and a grandmother to two – said she’s traveled and worked in Tennessee and Kentucky but moved back to Arkansas 30 years ago. She is going on her ninth year as superintendent for Bentonville. When asked what being a Superintendent of the Year finalist award means to her, Jones shared there’s a new sense of responsibility.
“I was so surprised,” she said. “We have really such high-quality superintendents that were nominated, and I’m honored. And there’s a sense of responsibility to speak up for what we need in education, to fight for those things.”
She said that meeting the other three finalists in Washington, D.C., was reinvigorating and showed her that Bentonville is on the right track. “We’re doing some progressive things that are very good. Keep going, push harder,” she said. “Whether you’re the finalist or not is immaterial to me at this point. It is really about enjoying the process, learning from the process and it’s bringing the best that you can bring to the district and to the state.”
Jones noted that transportation staff tend to be more transient in their employment, as many school bus drivers are older and retiring. As a result, the department is constantly hiring and training people.
“We have to be very aggressive in marketing and paying,” she said. “We also have to have good relationships.”
She explained that currently transportation has a really great culture and leadership team. “It’s really important for each one of our schools, our principals, assistant principals, our teachers, to appreciate bus drivers, which they do. They show them lots of love,” she said.
Jones provided an example. During each school board meeting, the district recognizes an employee who goes the extra mile, nominated by anyone in the community. For January, the Extra Mile recipient was school bus driver Sonia, who was nominated by a teacher. Sonia was nominated because she decorates her bus for each holiday. Jones noted that when the teacher’s first grade class got on the bus to go on a Christmas field trip, Sonia played Christmas music that instantly put the children in the holiday spirit.
“We do try to show our drivers love,” Jones added. “They’re super high-quality employees. We’re really proud of them, and they take great care of our students, and we can’t function without them. The world stops when you have to start canceling bus routes, and we try to do everything we can to make that not happen.”
Hoover noted that Jones has an open-door policy and listens to the needs of all departments. He added that if Salmons has a particularly urgent problem, he can report it directly to Jones.
Hoover added that he has bi-monthly meetings with each department he oversees, including transportation, to discuss any operational needs.
“Dr. Jones is always very quick to respond and help us form the solution that is needed,” Hoover said. In speaking on the driver shortage again, he noted that Jones was very supportive with their advertising efforts to hire more drivers, as well as the needs of physical resources like new buses.
“We have support financially, have support to hire at all times, and it’s crucial we have that opportunity for open communications,” Hoover said. “She’s a superintendent that definitely wants to listen to what the departments need when they have those needs.”
