KANSAS CITY, Mo. — First Student in Olathe runs over 250 bus routes, 170 days a year.
Location Manager Tom Grindinger said, "Winter is the toughest."
An ice storm swept through the Kansas City metro Tuesday, coating all of the buses with ice and closing most school districts in the area. Grindinger shared how First Student makes sure the buses are ready to go afterward. It all starts with what he calls a start crew.
"They get their keys to their assigned buses and go out and start those buses, get them thawing so that when the drivers and the monitors report usually about an hour and a half, two hours later, the buses are ready to go," Grindinger said.
The winter safety action plan also includes things like shutting down the buses and turning off all the switches when they aren't in use, treating the parking lot, wearing traction covers on your shoes when you do walk the parking lot and putting windshield covers on before the storm. The plan is designed to make sure First Student is ready to go.
Grindinger said, "Kids expect it, they're standing at a cold bus stop. We need to run on time."
