THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 29, 1995 TAG: 9512290745
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JO-ANN CLEGG, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
ON A COLD, BLUSTERY morning last week, Belva Redmon parked her 33-passenger bus in front of Parkway Elementary School, leaned back in the driver's seat and reflected on the years she's spent transporting children for the Virginia Beach Public School's special education program.
``When I started I thought it would just be a part-time thing,'' she said. ``Two or three years and then I wouldn't be doing it any more.''
Twenty-six years, three months, hundreds of passengers and thousands of miles later, Redmon, finally, has relinquished what she thought was going to be a temporary job.
Last Friday she made her final run driving special education students to and from elementary and middle schools in the South Kempsville and Green Run areas.
``It was the hours that kept me driving,'' Redmon said. ``That, and the fact that she could drive and still be with her children.''
Her older son and daughter were in school when she started driving, the younger ones were toddlers whom she'd bundle up and take with her when she started her day's run.
``They kind of grew up on my bus,'' she said.
Redmon started out driving special education students because it paid a bit more than driving a regular bus. She continued because she grew to love her sometimes fragile passengers.
``They're so special and so important,'' she said.
According to Redmon, discipline problems have been few over the years, even though her riders, sometimes as young as 2, can include children with severe mental and emotional problems.
``I've even had some of their teachers come to me and ask how I could handle a particular child so well,'' she said.
Redmon, the mother of four and grandmother of four, grew up in Norfolk. She left school in the 10th grade to marry Glenn, her husband of 39 years. She was 16, he was 17.
``We didn't have to get married,'' she said with a laugh, ``I wasn't pregnant or anything. ``We got married because we wanted to. Of course people said it would never last, but look at us now.''
Redmon's first bus runs were to what was then the Center for Effective Learning on Witchduck Road. A few years later she decided to take advantage of another school program located at the same site.
The Adult Learning Center was right behind C.E.L and a few of the drivers who didn't have high school diplomas decided to use the time between runs to work on their GEDs.
The drivers would make their morning runs, attend classes, then return the children to their homes.
It was a proud moment for the whole family when Redmon completed her high school work and received the prized diploma.
Having worked for the school system for so long, she has seen a lot of changes. She's been a member of the Public School's Bus Drivers Association of Virginia Beach since it was started in 1970.
She's seen tremendous growth in the numbers of students and schools. And in something else as well: traffic.
``I had one young girl (driver) run right into the side of the bus when it was sitting still,'' she said, shaking her head. Fortunately no one on the bus was hurt but it was the kind of accident that makes Redmon and other school bus drivers worry a lot.
And she's seen major changes in the special education program. More youngsters with special needs are being schooled in regular classrooms or in special classes in regular schools. Children with much greater disabilities are going to school, rather than being institutionalized.
The extent of their disabilities means little to Redmon, however.
``When they're on my bus, they're my kids,'' she said ``I worry about them just like they were my own.''
Redmon also is responsible for a special ed bus dynasty of sorts. One daughter, Becky Tatem, is a driver and a second daughter, Debbie Blackburn, is a special education bus assistant.
It was Tatem who had one last surprise for Redmon on her last day of driving. Between runs, Tatem sneaked over to her mother's home and lined the driveway and front lawn with banners, streamers and balloons to mark the big day.
Next week, when the big yellow buses take to the road again, Belva Redmon, for the first time in more than 26 years, won't be driving one. Her plans include spending more of her time and energy on the man she married when she was 16.
``I'm going to stay home and take better care of my husband,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by JO-ANN CLEGG
During her 26 years spent transporting children for the Virginia
Beach Public School's special education program, Belva Redmon also
managed to find time to earn her GED.
by CNB