Joanne Wright has been driving school buses for 40 years, first in New York and now for Fulton County Schools.

In New York, she was “Jamal’s mom” since her son was a regular passenger on her bus from when he was in first grade until high school.  At first, she didn’t know how convenient driving him to and from school would be, but then she saw it was the perfect job for her.

“I was able to take him to and from school. I was able to take him on his field trips and all his sporting events. So, I was blessed with that, and it was a pleasure,” Wright said.

Now he’s 40 years old and Wright is still a bus driver, doing something she’s grown to love.

She’s worked for the Fulton County Schools Transportation Department for three years and has already been designated as one of Fulton’s Finest, an honor bestowed to 76 drivers and 12 transportation aides out of the approximately 650 bus drivers.

Another pleasure is encountering students from the past who now have careers and kids of their own. Many years into her career as a bus driver she recalled pulling up to a stop where a man was waiting with his young son.

“He’s a grown man, and he says to me, ‘you used to be my bus driver.’ Now I’m taking his child to school, and it’s beautiful,” she said. “They have their own homes, and they’re working, and their children are riding my bus. That’s beautiful.”

Another student she drove from sixth grade until she graduated high school came back to visit Wright and had grown up to speak five languages and work as a translator.

Children draw pictures for her, bring her flowers, and sometimes even bring juice to her. She takes the pictures and hangs them up on the bus so everyone can see.

The connections she’s made with the children and their parents are strong. If she missed a day of work, parents were calling her the next day asking where she was and what happened. After she broke her ankle and had to miss driving to recuperate, parents called to check on her.  It was positive feedback to her knowing what the parents and kids on her bus think of her.

But there are also challenges to being a bus driver, including dealing with other motorists and being mindful of what the kids are doing on the bus.

“I tell my kids every, every day, if you hear me blow my horn, there’s a reason. I need you to stop whatever you’re doing,’ Wright said. “I need you to stop, look at me, and I’ll say go back to the curb, or go to your mom, or just pay attention.”

She drives in the North Springs cluster, which includes the high school, Sandy Springs Middle, Ison, Dunwoody, and Woodland Elementary Schools.

Wright is on the bus by 6:15 a.m. each morning and the routes start with elementary school students, then high school and middle school.. She gets a break from approximately 10:30 a.m. until noon before reporting back at 1:30 p.m. and continuing until 5 p.m. When drivers aren’t running routes in their buses, they’re in training.

Her position as a breakdown driver, where she substitutes on routes when the regular driver is out. If a school bus breaks down on a route, she drives the replacement bus to pick up the kids.

Wright also helps recruit bus drivers for Fulton County, which at capacity would employ 805 drivers. She shared the biggest concerns she hears from would-be drivers. 

“The first two things they say is, ‘I don’t want to drive those bad kids.’ The second thing, ‘I can’t drive such a big bus.,” she said.

Wright tells them she was initially afraid of driving a bus, but can now drive a school bus better than her car.