ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608090093
SECTION: DISCOVER ROANOKE VALLEY PAGE: 8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL CROAN STAFF WRITER
It's the first day of school.
You've spent all morning making breakfast, combing hair, picking out or critiquing clothes, adjusting to big attitudes in small bodies, and, finally, your children head for the nearest bus stop, sporting the newest, coolest bookbags and lunchboxes.
You keep an eye on the window, expecting to see that big yellow truck roll by. But what if it never came?
Apart from the obvious jubilation of thousands of children across the valley, most parents would consider such a scenario an absolute nightmare.
But no one in the valley would be more upset, more harried, more ticked off than Helen "Jo" Shifflett, transportation specialist for the Roanoke City Schools Transportation Department.
It's her job to make sure the school buses pick up the children and get them to school on time. That means organizing bus routes all over the city, checking the drivers' progress each day and sometimes rerouting buses on the spot.
Shifflett, 57, began her career with the Transportation Department nearly 25 years ago.
"I started as a bus aide in January of 1972," she said. "I've been down here longer than anybody else."
Her duties then included riding along on a school bus, helping children get on and off the bus and cross the street safely.
Shifflett started driving buses on the first day of summer school that year and soon started work in the office part time. After 13 years of driving school buses, Shifflett began full-time work in the Transportation Department's main office. Her July promotion to transportation specialist from transportation assistant is evidence of her continued dedication to her work.
"I guess I just came up through the ranks," she said.
Over the years, Shifflett has witnessed several major changes in the way her office operates.
"We used to take a yellow pad and write down all the children's names and addresses and work from there," she said. But computers have since made her job much easier.
Shifflett said the best part about using computers is "just being able to type it in there and when you go back, it's still there so you can update instead of doing it all over again. I enjoy doing anything on the computer."
The hardest part of her job is rerouting buses if drivers call in sick or for some reason cannot make their runs. Combining routes or simply creating a new route usually solves the problem, she said.
"You just kinda have to figure out who's got the space and who's got the time," she said. "I don't know. Somehow I usually get 'em figured out."
"Magnet schools are my absolute worst nightmare," Shifflett continued. "Anybody can go to these schools, and it's my job to get them there."
Shifflett will be eligible to retire in five years but isn't sure what the future will hold.
"It's better for me to work than to sit around the house and do nothing," she said. "I enjoy my job. It's a real rat race sometimes, but I enjoy it."
And what about the school system's Transportation Department? How will it fare when she leaves?
Perhaps the answer is in a thank-you card Shifflett received recently that reads, "You're the glue that holds this place together."
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: DON PETERSEN STAFF Helen "Jo" Shifflett started out asby CNBa bus aide some 25 years ago. She now is transportation specialist
for the Roanoke City Schools Transportation Department.