Author: Tammy Lane • First Posted: Thursday, August 28, 2008

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Parked at a side door of Tates Creek High School, Robert "Bob" Glass helps a student in a wheelchair board the bus for the ride home.

Robert E. Glass has been faithfully shepherding a busload of Fayette County Public Schools students with special needs for nearly 20 years, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. 

“Those parents trust you to take care of them. Each one of them is like one of my own children. I’m not going to let anything happen to them,” he explained, citing love for the kids as a major prerequisite for any school bus driver.

“We’re the first person they see in the morning, smiling face or not, and that makes a big difference to the children,” Glass said. “If you’re a grouch when they get on the bus, that kind of sets the tone for the whole day. Our bus is a happy bus, and that’s the way we operate.”

His passengers include about a dozen students – some in wheelchairs, others with autism, Down syndrome or multiple disabilities. All are treasured by Glass, who often is invited to their graduations and other family celebrations. 

“We just have a good time,” said the 76-year-old Lexington native. “Maybe one day they had a rough day, but by the time they ride two or three miles, they’re smiling and happy they went to school.

“Wherever I’m at, there’s the noise of laughter. I just love the kids, and we have a fun day every day on the bus.”

During his Air Force days, Glass drove a crash ambulance while stationed in Texas; he later manned Kentucky Utilities service trucks. Since joining the Fayette County Public Schools in 1989, he says, “I’ve worn out 2 1/2 buses on the special-needs route.”

He checks out his bus at 6 a.m. for door-to-door stops, now mostly on the south side of town. His morning route finishes about 9 a.m. Pickups at schools start around 2:15 p.m., and his bus pulls back into the Springhill Drive garage lot about 5 p.m. Then there’s the occasional extra trip, like driving a high school band to a competition in Louisville. 

“I retired from Kentucky Utilities after 25 years and thought that bus driving would be a nice part-time job,” said Glass, who enjoys fishing and camping.  “I went to driving the bus the next day – my retirement wasn’t very long.”

His regular assistant, IBM retiree Juanita Barron, rides shotgun. “We’re really a team,” said Barron, a bus monitor for 17 years, nearly all on a special-needs bus. 

“You get a chance to know the kids – their moods, their expressions,” she added. “It really becomes like your family.”

Barron points out the extras on board their Bus No. 803, such as honey for children with diabetes and a seat-belt cutter to free students quickly in an emergency. She and Glass trade banter along their route, which covers about 115 miles a day (morning and afternoon rides combined), and they back one another up, whether double-checking the bus windows or securing a boy’s wheelchair. 

“My assistant is like a mother hen with little chicks,” Glass said. “She takes care of them and makes sure everything’s OK.”

This fall, their afternoon pickup route takes them from the FCPS bus garage behind Lafayette High School to Eastside Technical Center and Tates Creek High and Middle. 

While the students listen to country music on the bus’s AM/FM radio, their veteran driver keeps one ear cocked toward the district scanner up front.  At the beginning of the school year, it takes a couple of weeks to firm up bus assignments. Glass is used that, and the kids quickly get used to him.

“The children you bring into school, they like the same bus and the same driver,” he noted.

Glass’ pastor praised his dedication to the students.

“If I had a special-needs child, I’d want him to be the bus driver. He’s so careful in what he does and so encouraging. He takes an interest in individuals, not just the group,” said Jay Robison of Trinity Baptist Church, where Glass is a longtime member and deacon. “He tends to bring a smile to your face and has an infectious enthusiasm.”