New Home for Wentzville School District's Transportation Department

The s Transportation Department will be moving into a new facility on Hwy A on August 1.

Matt Deichmann, the district's director of community relations said, "Currently we have half of our fleet behind , and half behind . It will be much more efficient for the district to have a central location."

Jennifer Simpson, Director of Transportation for the district, gave Patch some interesting facts about the department:

• The fleet currently has 139 buses.
• 9000 students are served by the buses.
• 175 people work in the department, and currently 127 of them are bus drivers.
• Wentzville School District buses traveled a total of 1,606,790 miles during the 2009 - 2010 school year.
• The district transported approximately 1,476,000 students to and from school last year.
• The district's fleet achieved a 95 percent during its annual Missouri State Highway Patrol Inspection in March.
• The average age of buses in the district's fleet is four years old.
• The Transportation Department uses an average of 1,250 gallons of diesel fuel per day.
• So far this year, the average cost of fuel is $2.81 per gallon. Based on this average, the district is spending approximately $3513 per day in fuel.

To become a school bus driver for the district, one must complete the following steps:

• A comprehensive training program to attain a bus driver license
• An FBI fingerprint background investigation
• A minimum of eight hours of annual in-service training per year
• A yearly physical as well as random drug and alcohol screening
• Eight hours of behavior management training and six hours of defensive driving training within the first two years of employment
• Pass an annual dexterity test to prove that a driver is physically able to complete safety-sensitive job responsibilities