Ever Wonder How The Wheels On The Bus Go Round And Round?
Today, we highlight the work of Terri Aman. She was honored this past May at the seventh annual Champ celebration. CIS Board Member Jasmine Granville, along with Larry Manley Jr., CIS Site Coordinator at Washington Writers Academy, presented the award.
“The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round!” We have the idea that the yellow buses that carry our children to and from school magically appear as they have since ancient times, when parents stopped walking three miles to school, barefoot, in ten feet of snow. Anyone who is a little closer to reality, including parent who’ve called transportation to see if their house keys were left on the bus after the away basketball game or who’ve begged for mercy after their child was kicked off the bus for horseplay, knows there are many buses and hundreds of wheels that don’t go round and round without the woman with the magic transportation wand. That magic wand’s fairy dust is sprinkled around by Kalamazoo Public School wonder woman and Executive Supervisor for Transportation, Terri Aman.
In addition to the thousands of students routinely transported to and from their regular school day, hundreds of Communities In Schools’ participants in after school and summer programs are faithfully delivered via KPS buses, in rain, snow, sleet, hail and yes, dark of night. We are not sure how she keeps her hair from going white or how she maintains her appreciation for humankind, but we are immensely grateful that she continues to oversee a service that neither we nor students and parents could do without. She truly makes life easier for CIS Site Coordinators and Directors by her unflappable aura.
Terri appears ever able to let others’ frustrations—often laced with angry words—roll off her back. She understands when the bus is delayed and the driver is upset because he had to circle back for a dawdling after-school student who had mistakenly thought his parent was picking him up. Terri listens carefully to the hysterical parent who doesn’t understand how her child could have possibly gotten off the bus at her old address rather than her new one, despite having lived at the old address since she started school.
Terri works tirelessly on behalf of KPS and its students. She keeps the wheels on the bus going round and round.
Terri Aman, we thank you for helping kids stay in school and achieve in life.
Tags: buses, Champ, Jasmine Granville, Kalamazoo Public Schools, Larry Manley Jr., school transportation, Washington Writers' Academy
