School transportation director: “We are in the business of safety.”

Transportation Director Aaron Mitchell and his staff are committed to transporting Warren County’s students safely and efficiently.

FRONT ROYAL – If one topic has united Warren County Public School parents since this academic year began, it has to be the bus schedules. And that subject isn’t lost on Transportation Director Aaron Mitchell.

The delays, he says, are leveling out. Both Mitchell and Superintendent Greg Drescher said that a number of factors weigh into the delays, particularly in the beginning of the school year. Parents often drive the child to school on the first day, and a bus that wasn’t full in the morning suddenly becomes crowded in the afternoon, or the next morning during pick-up.

Moreover, with the opening of a new middle school this year, “Hundreds of new stops have been created since school ended last year. Assimilating these stops into the bus runs creates timing issues,“ Drescher wrote in an email.

Beginning this school year, the county’s middle and high schools start at 8 a.m., with buses picking up students beginning at about 7 a.m. Elementary schools begin at 9 a.m.
Dismissal times for middle and high schools are 2:35 p.m. with elementary schools letting out at 3:35 p.m.

Both Mitchell and Drescher explained that if a bus experiences severe overcrowding while loading at the end of the day, another bus will be dispatched to transport students home. It is important, Mitchell said during a sit-down interview at the Transportation Department on E. Criser Road, to “implement corrective measures quickly. How we get measured is how we handle the problem.”

A school bus can carry 77 passengers, but WCPS aims for 50-55 students on middle and high school bus routes and 60-65 students on elementary bus runs.

While a school bus is designed with a maximum passenger load of 77, the WCPS policy is to keep the number of students between 50-55 for the middle and high school bus routes and 60-65 for the elementary routes.

Mitchell, who is quick to credit his “hard-working and dedicated” office staff, consisting of Administrative Assistant Virginia Henry and Route Coordinator Tony Bernal. Ms. Henry, he said, arrives at 6 a.m. each morning and both she and Mr. Bernal often are the staff whom parents to speak to when Mitchell is tied up.

Keeping track of 37 buses that run regular routes, plus activity-bus routes, the middle school after-school program drop-off route plus scheduled field trips, and it is not wonder that Mitchell says he sometimes is at the office until 10 p.m. or later. But, he says, “Our business is safety and I take it very seriously…and our drivers are flat-out amazing!”

There are some high-tech tools that have been implemented under Mitchell’s watch—and he brought them on board without raising the Transportation Department budget a single dime. Network Fleet is a computer program that allows the office to see, in real-time, with GPS coordinates, the location of the bus and how fast the bus if traveling. The staff can also check on how overcrowded any bus is, at any given time.

Three digital cameras that stream video in real-time are aboard every WCPS bus.

Another high-tech improvement that should assuage parents’ concerns: three streaming cameras on each bus, which allow the staff to pull up in the office in real-time, or refer back to recorded video if necessary. The software also sends an email to the office when a vehicle exceeds the speed limit, which doesn’t happen too often, Mitchell says.

A former U. S. Marine, Aaron Mitchell was in construction, part of the team tasked with renovating the former Warren County High School into the current Skyline Middle School. Former WCPS Superintendent Pam McInnis met him, liked how he represented himself and the company for which he worked during the renovation, and suggested that he apply for the transportation director job when it became available. The rest, as they say, is history.

Mitchell is a self-effacing man, despite the fact that two winters ago, when there was significant snowfall and icy conditions, he spent 38 nights sleeping on the floor of his office. It was just a part of keeping “his kids safe”, he said, in a recent interview.

Transportation Shop Foreman Jerry Smith and Mitchell are tasked with a 2 a.m. “road run” on school days when the weather is questionable. That means that each man must head into the office, assess the weather forecast, air temperature, road temperature, road conditions, i.e. if treated, if there is precipitation on the road.

Warren County’s terrain and elevation variations also present issues for the school system, There are some county roads that absolutely will flood when heavy rains occur, making it impossible for buses to get into areas to pick up students.

The higher-elevation areas of Warren County, such as Linden, at 1,840-feet above sea level, may be covered with snow and/or ice, while in town, at 638-feet above sea level, the roads may be clear. Without that 2 a.m. road run, it would be impossible

WCPS has a fleet of 37 buses, which are inspected daily and maintained regularly.

to determine if school could safely open.

As students settle into the school year, Mitchell encourages parents to contact his office with any concerns and says they will be handled as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Drescher echoed that sentiment in an email, stating, “Every routing issue is being worked on as quickly as possible. I hear the frustrations. Believe me we all want to be fixed.”