Learning: ESP on the Team
Alabama Support Staff Create Bus Safety Program

A giant turtle helps spread the word about bus safety in Dothan, Alabama

Six years ago, Alabama bus driver Jeanene Stremski returned from NEA's annual ESP conference with an inspiration. She had seen a presentation about a bus safety program in Florida's Escambia County and was determined to create a similar program in her own 10,000-student Dothan City district.

Stremski enlisted the aid of kindergarten teacher Rachel Burchfield, ESP colleagues, and local administrators. They all worked through the summer developing a curriculum and creating materials and, that fall, the Dothan City Educational Support Personnel Organization (ESPO) "Safety Sam" program made its debut.

"Safety Sam" has since become one of the main ways the 375-member Dothan City ESPO works with students, teachers, parents, and the community.

Each year, every kindergarten teacher in Dothan shows students some short bus safety videos. Then Stremski and her fellow trainers-bus drivers Peggy Black, Jessie Jinks, and Marjorie Chancey, and former driver Ann Phillips-brings in Safety Sam to meet the kindergarten youngsters. Safety Sam always appears in a big, green turtle suit.

"We want the kids to feel like the school bus is a safe place," says Stremski.

After talking with children in the classroom, Stremski and co-workers take them to a bus to show them how to get on and off safely. The bus drivers also explain how the driver's two-way radio works and how to make an emergency exit. They also send home safety information for parents.

The program works. Bus drivers report fewer discipline problems than before-and note that Safety Sam's impact lasts far beyond kindergarten.

"I hear fifth and sixth graders still talking about Safety Sam," notes Stremski, who says the kids also like Klutzball, a character in the program who doesn't follow the safety rules.

Stremski, a 19-year veteran driver who serves on the Alabama Education Association's ESP board of directors, is quick to share credit for the Safety Sam program's success with her fellow ESP, teachers, administrators, and supportive community residents.

Safety Sam has become a real fixture throughout Dothan. The program's turtle mascot appears at malls, grocery stores, and other community sites. And each November, as more than 100,000 spectators watch, bus drivers, kindergartners, and teachers ride on Dothan City ESPO's Safety Sam float in the National Peanut Festival parade.

Last fall ESPO received an ESP Technology Grant from NEA (see box) to buy a computer for designing and publishing Safety Sam materials and tracking student participation.

Dothan City ESPO also hopes to create its own Web site soon.

Team Player
Out From Under the Thumb

Name: Helen Loop

Job Title: Head cook and custodian at LeRoy Elementary in Michigan's Pine River School District

What I Do: From 7 a.m., when we start making breakfast, to 1:30 p.m., when we finish serving lunch, I'm in the cafeteria. Then I put on my other hat as school custodian, from 2 to 4.

I'm also the president of the Pine River ESP Association and co-chair for our regional Coordinating Council, so I have plenty of meetings and conferences to keep me busy.

Crowning Achievement: A few years ago, the school board decided the Food Services Division was doing so badly that it hired Canteen/ Chartwell to manage the division.

Canteen/Chartwell promised not to change much, but then it did. The company changed our hours, cut portions, and made us feel like there was always someone waiting for us to mess up.

Our union took the case to the board, and we fought for one and a half years to get back the right to run our division. With the help of teachers and parents, we're now allowed to serve kids healthy, home-style meals in decent portions and in a friendly environment. Canteen/Chartwell drove the kids to go out for junk food instead of eating what was served in the cafeteria. Now the kids love eating at school. Even teachers eat at school. Plus, we don't have to pay a consultant $55,000 a year.

Future plans: We're focusing on offering more nourishing foods after school, like sandwiches, fruit, and yogurt. It's always an adventure trying to get something from the school board, but we're trying.

Inspiration: I used to sit back and gripe all the time. Finally, my husband told me that if I wanted anything done, I'd have to get up and do it myself.

So I started going to union meetings, became president, and then started this effort to get back the schools' food service. And we did it!

When the cooks walk into the kitchen, people immediately see the difference. They say, "You're so much more fun now!" We feel pride, and it's wonderful.

Going the Extra Mile

Food has become a vital part of education, "because a lot of kids don't get what they need at home," says Rosemarie Wood, head cook at Sedgwick (Maine) Elementary.

"Sometimes the kids just don't want to eat when the bus comes early in the morning," she adds. "But by the time they get to school, they're usually hungry."

To make meals fun and educational, Wood plans several theme lunches each year. These include "author's day," when lunch relates to a story all the students know.

Special lunches are also provided on Thanksgiving and Halloween and days when military veterans are invited to dine and share stories with students.

Wood's favorite theme was "Indian day." She researched and created a meal of Native American food for students.

"The kids are the most important part of my job," says Wood. "I just try to focus on them and interact with what's going on in their classrooms."

For her inventiveness and attention to students' needs, Wood was presented with the 2000 Joan McGovern Educational Support Personnel Award, given each year by the Maine Education Association.

School spirit and academic achievement are of equal importance in the eyes of Sharon Moser, Iowa's 2000 ISEA Educational Support Personnel Award winner.

A former special ed associate, Moser now works at Fort Dodge's Cooper Elementary library. Her goal: to encourage a love of reading in students and make sure that lunchtime is a fun and positive time for everyone.

An active member of the Fort Dodge Education Association's teacher associate bargaining unit, Moser is also involved with the Juvenile Diabetes Association, serves as a community outreach resource person, and volunteers for the Fort Dodge Parks, Recreation, and Forestry Board.

NEA's ESP Tech Grants

NEA's ESP Technology Grants are designed to help local affiliates use online resources to become more effective and to help restore public confidence in public education. Applications for the next cycle of grants will be due in the spring, with grants ranging from $250 to $3,500 per local.

For application guidelines and information about current and past grant winners, visit the NEA ESP Web site at www.nea.org/esp/espnea/techgrnt.htm.

You can also E-mail ESP.Program@nea.org or phone the NEA ESP Program at (202) 822-7131.

Resources

A new approach to job descriptions
If you work in an educational support personnel position but have no job description-or have a job description that has very little in common with your actual job--you're not alone. This situation is all too common for NEA's support staff members.

But help is here. A new NEA pamphlet, Results-Oriented Job Descriptions for Educational Support Personnel, outlines an approach to providing clear expectations for employees and supervisors.

You can read this publication online at www.nea.org/esp/resource/rojobdes.htm. Free print copies can be obtained by contacting the NEA ESP Program, 1201 16th St., NW, Washington, DC 20036, Tel: 202/822-7131, E-mail: ESP.Program@nea.org.

Bus privatization costs more in Ohio
In Ohio, school districts that contract out transportation have paid significantly more on average, whether measured per pupil or per mile, than school districts that have handled pupil transportation in-house.

That's one of the key findings of Taking Them for a Ride: An Assessment of the Privatization of School Transportation in Ohio's Public School Districts, a study by Mark Cassell of the Kent State University Department of Political Science.

Cassell analyzed official reports filed by 611 school districts from 1994-1998. The study is available at www.afscme.org/wrkplace/takerdtc.htm.

Team up for school lunch
This October 9-13 is National School Lunch Week. This year the American School Food Service Association (ASFSA) and the United States Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service are partnering to promote the week with a football theme, "Team Up to Promote School Lunch."

ASFSA has assembled a variety of resources on the Web to celebrate School Lunch Week, including menus, recipes, and downloadable graphics for use in flyers. Also available: the Team Up for School Lunch Playbook, a free 21-page public relations toolkit that you can download and print out.

You can find all this information at www.asfsa.org/nslw2000/.