For rural school districts, one of the most important issues in education is getting the kids to school in order to be educated. Recent school closures due to snow attest to this. The Flora School District’s new transportation facility, or “Bus Barn” located on south Stanford Road, helps to make the job easier for the people and vehicles that get area children and young adults to their classes week in and week out.
Mark Smith, the District’s Transportation Director of 10 years says that the drivers and transportation staff have moved in to the new facility little more than a month ago, and despite still sorting things out due to the move, “Overall, it’s fantastic.”
The old bus barn, located on Flora High School grounds, will have its building used by district maintenance while bus parking spots will eventually become high school parking spots. The new building offers many improvements over the old facility.
Smith says that the new facility allows the buses to be parked on concrete instead of gravel, the entrances to the buses are covered, there is a dedicated area for drivers and staff to get ready, and there are significantly better facilities for servicing and washing the buses.
“For us,” said Smith, referring to his staff and to the bus drivers, “We’re out of the high school’s traffic and we’ve got a lot nicer facility.”
All of the district’s 26 buses are parked at the new facility and there is still room for covered parking of two more buses, if necessary.
The maintenance facilities include two repair bays and a dedicated indoor wash bay, which Smith says is “Very, very nice.” At the old facility, washing the buses in the winter meant a lot of work clearing a bay out and then squeegeeing the water outside. The new wash bay has built in drainage and even has a mechanical curtain to separate it from the other facilities, “So you don’t splash the guy next to you.”
Smith says that the response from drivers and staff has been unanimously positive. “Everyone is really proud and excited about it,” said Smith, “Even after being here for three weeks.”
Smith also said that the process of getting their new facility built was a pleasant one, especially compared to other district projects. “We had a really nice experience as far as building it, with the contractors and architects. We appreciated that,” said Smith. The projects architects were from EWR Architects and GRS Contractors built the facility.
Even after having moved in, Smith is still at work getting the new bus barn ready. “We plan on getting the landscaping done in front as soon as the weather permits,” he said,” So it will look nicer when they finish. Smith also said that an open house was planned for the facility sometime in the spring.
