Schools

Tuckahoe Students, Secretary LaHood 'Love the Bus'

American School Bus Council hosts annual event in Arlington.

A flock of youngsters dressed in yellow waited eagerly in the Tuckahoe Elementary School lobby Tuesday morning for a few special guests.

"I can't wait to meet the bus drivers," said fifth-grader Megan Jones as she waited. She added that she's ridden the bus "even since preschool."

A few buses, their drivers and U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood soon arrived at the school to have their picture taken before a short assembly — the American School Bus Council's Love the Bus Main Event.

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The morning was essentially a celebration of the big yellow buses that take children to and from school — and the men and women who drive them. Arlington Public Schools Superintendent Pat Murphy said it was important to reinforce the relationship between students and their bus driver, as that is the first person representing the school system a child sees each day.

"It's the idea of celebrating the relationship school buses have with public education," Murphy told Patch.

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School buses in Arlington travel 630,000 miles each year to and from school, Murphy said. Arlington Public Schools has 129 bus drivers and 41 attendants.

"Let's honor them today, and let's remember them throughout their career in Arlington," Murphy told the students.

LaHood asked the students to thank their bus drivers Tuesday and every day.

"The person who drives your bus is as important as your teacher," he told the children. "Because it's his or her responsibility to get you the places you're going safely."

LaHood spoke after preschoolers serenaded the assembly with a rendition of "Wheels on the Bus" and a group of kindergarteners rapped about following the rules on the bus.

LaHood said that once when he spoke to a group of students, one asked if — as the secretary of transportation — he got to drive the president around.

"No, I don't," LaHood said with a chuckle. "But I do get to ride with him sometime."

LaHood and Arlington school bus driver Abraham Tuwiafe were honored with yellow Love the Bus T-shirts.

The transportation secretary was introduced as a friend of the school bus industry. It's a fairly small industry, with only three major suppliers.

According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, school buses are designed to be safer than passenger vehicles and are considered the safest mode of transportation for getting children to and from school.

Arlington Public Schools Transportation Director Bob Laws said much of that was attributed to the buses' design. The front, rear and sides are built to withstand certain impacts, and a strong enough impact can separate the body — Laws likened it to a cocoon — from the chassis.

Arlington Public Schools replaces about 10 buses a year on average, Laws said.

School buses keep an estimated 17.3 million cars off the streets annually, according to the National Highway Transportation Administration.

"Arlington County is really congested… So busing is always going to be an issue," said Mark Videnieks with the American School Bus Council when asked why Tuckahoe was chosen as host. "So, it was a good fit."

In preparation for Tuesday's event, students and staff researched the evolution of school buses, Tuckahoe Principal Cynthia Brown said.

"Two things are obvious today," she said. "Tuckahoe rocks, and we love the bus."

Tuckahoe parent Ronna Weber is also the executive director of the National School Transportation Association, which is a member of the American School Bus Council.

That association, based in Alexandria, raised and spent $22,000 last year, according to OpenSecrets.org.


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