shoreline_unified_school_buses
Dan Wood, a bus driver for Shoreline Unified School District, pours water into the cooling system of a 1997 Thomas-built bus during his regular morning safety check. “Honestly, I’m not sure it’ll make it through the day,” he said. The district hopes to replace his bus and another by spring.    David Briggs

Dan Wood arrives at the garage below the West Marin School every winter weekday an hour before daybreak. As one of Shoreline Unified School District’s eight bus drivers, Mr. Wood, an eight-year bus operator from Dillon Beach, manages two routes: up to Pierce Point for Tomales High students and then back to Point Reyes for the elementary school roundup. He’s on the road by 6 a.m., but not before he runs through a required maintenance routine to ensure his bus—at 20 years, the second oldest in the fleet—is up to snuff. He checks the tires, fluids, oils, lights, brakes and interior before starting up the 1997 Thomas-built bus nearing 350,000 miles. “Honestly, I’m not sure it’ll make it through the day,” he said after hearing a grinding noise. (The bus was just out of commission for a month while a mechanic repaired the heater.) “I think lately, the buses have been so beat up that it’s hard to keep up with them.” The subject of Shoreline’s aging buses—three are around 20 years old—has come up at district board meetings in recent months. Last month, Linda Borello, a secretary for West Marin School, said the state of the buses is of “great concern.” “The buses are old and in ill repair,” she said. “They have broken heaters and defrosters. This has created a student safety issue. They need to be replaced.” George Borges, the district’s transportation director, reported earlier in the year that the 1997 bus and a 1996 bus were in failing condition. And the district has begun the process of replacing them: Shoreline Superintendent Bob Raines said he expects to have new vehicles by the spring. “If we had anything out there that we didn’t think would make it through the winter, we wouldn’t put kids on it,” he said. Every school bus in the state is subjected to an annual maintenance check by the California Highway Patrol. Monica Christopher, who is in charge of the C.H.P.’s school bus inspection program for the Bay Area, said Shoreline has been in compliance since 2002 and has not been flagged for any complaints (which she said is common during union disputes). In October, seven of Shoreline’s eight bus drivers participated in what this newspaper called a wildcat strike, along with over 40 other classified employees. The one-day strike came after an incident in which a bus carrying the Tomales High football team broke down going to the South Bay after overheating. Markey Lees, the union representative for the district’s classified employees, said at the time that the episode left the transportation staff feeling desperate. “The driver did all this stuff that is not theirs to do,” she said. “The bus drivers feel very unsupported.” Ms. Lees is in the midst of prolonged negotiations over a district proposal to swap out current health insurance plans for health savings accounts.