Inside the dept.: Sachem Transportation

Bus Fleet

Sachem’s Transportation Department is comprised of five office workers, three mechanics and one custodian.

“To and from school, private and parochial schools, special needs in district schools, special needs out of district schools, sports trips, field trips, maintenance on 39 buses and many other district vehicles,” said Sachem’s Transportation Supervisor Stephen Shadbolt when describing his office’s responsibilities.

bus 7To expand on the transportation numbers in Sachem, a district with 14,000-plus students going to 18 different buildings:

  • Number of buses: 39 Sachem buses, 99 Towne bus routes, 94 We Transport vans, 22 BOCES routes and two DDI routes
  • Number of drivers: 270-274 total with route drivers and spares totaled
  • Number of bus runs daily: Approximately 815 runs with approximately 7,000 bus stops, approximately 12,500 students are eligible for transportation daily
  • Number of field trips to transport: We manage all of the field trips that our students take. Last year we took over 1,100 trips between sports, music and educational trips.

bus 6

Shadbolt on his office’s responsibilities …

What’s one thing people doesn’t know about the transportation department?

I am up at 3:00 a.m. on snowy days talking with facilities, district office and my colleagues from other districts trying to decide if the roads are safe enough to transport students that day. A two-hour delay, that has to be one of the most difficult things sometimes to try to figure out with all the information we can get in four or five hours from that minute will the roads be safe to travel. The weather forecasters get it wrong sometimes and we have to figure how that is going to affect what we do.

bus 5How would you describe your day-to-day responsibilities?

I manage and resolve all transportation issues for students on a daily bases. While at the same time managing training and testing of our drivers. Also I am the liaison with all four of our contractor bus groups. They are Regional BOCES, DDI Transportation as well as van company We Transport and our big bus contractor, Towne bus. I oversee vehicle repairs and purchasing for our department along with creating our annual budget. 

What can you tell us about your career and background?

I was a school bus driver in Long Beach City Schools from 1987 to 2000. While there I was involved in school bus safety competitions called Road-eos. I was county champion or runner up 12 years in a row. I was state champion or runner up three times. My best national finish was No. 11 in the country. I then became a dispatcher and then a supervisor at North Shore schools from 2000 to 2004. I have been at Sachem since July 2004, this is my 11th year.

I am a certified 19-A examiner. That is a person that tests drivers annually to make sure they are still driving safely and following the laws, rules and regulations that are in place to protect students. I am a School Bus Driver Instructor. This means I can teach the classes each year that are required by SED for two hours twice a year, plus an added hour for Special Needs information. I have been a member of the Suffolk County Traffic Safety Board for five years and have been President of Suffolk NYAPT, New York Association for Pupil Transportation Suffolk Chapter.