Catching Up With PCSC’s Transportation Team
Writer / Melissa Gibson
Photographer / ????
Bus drivers serve an important role in any school corporation, transporting all ages to and from school, field trips, athletic events
and more.
Bus drivers not only serve an important role for the school, but also serve an important role in a child’s life.
Linette Legg and Marcella Treboldi are two Plainfield Community School Corporation (PCSC) employees in the transportation department who are making a difference every day.
For Legg, a family history perhaps led her to a career driving a bus. She can trace back four generations of family members who valued children, education and making a difference.
“My great-grandfather, Spencer Thompson, drove for Mooresville in 1886,” Legg says. “In that day, it was a wagon pulled by horses. My grandfather drove a bus for Plainfield for 18 years. My father drove a bus for Mill Creek for 18 years or so, and then he switched to doing bus maintenance. From there, my mother took over his route for about six years in the early ’70s.”
For Legg, it wasn’t necessarily a planned career, but just like her family members before her, it became important.
“When my youngest went to kindergarten, I applied to be a teacher’s aide,” she says. “I was looking for a schedule that would allow me to be home at night with my kids. The superintendent at the time said they didn’t need teacher’s aides but they did need bus drivers, and they were happy to train me.”
The transportation department is still happy to train anyone wanting to drive for them. After a paid training period, obtaining a paid commercial driver’s license and some experience out on the road, they’ll gladly employ someone interested in driving a bus.
Legg recalls her first bus more than 47 years ago was a manual vehicle with no air conditioning, radio or cameras, but she loved it.
“I loved the schedule,” she says. “I loved being home in the afternoon and running errands, and still having those evenings free with my kids. I love having the summers off. I also love the kids. They say the cutest things, and I have often said I’d do this even if I didn’t get paid.”
Of course today, Legg’s bus features an automatic transmission, air conditioning, cameras, and two-way radios to communicate with the transportation department, making things a bit easier – but that’s not why she does it.
“I still see kids in the store that remember me,” she says. “A few of them still call me and we get together for lunch. Nearly 50 years later, I’m now picking up the grandchildren of some of the kids I had on my bus years ago. I really feel appreciated and remembered.”
Students recall the fun incentives Legg would include on her bus rides, from candy to soda and other prizes, which enticed them to grow and learn a little more on the ride to and from school.
“I always said good morning to the kids and a lot of them wouldn’t even look at me,” she says. “Once, I told them that if we could get every person to say good morning on one day, we’d have candy at the end of the week. It took them a few days and the kids at the front of the bus were all listening intently, but they finally got it.”
In addition to making a difference in students’ lives, Legg cherishes the relationships within the department.
“I’ve formed really close friendships with the other drivers over the years,” she says. “I was only 28 when I first started and was the youngest one there. We’d go on field trips and pack our own picnic to have with our bus-driver friends. It was just a lot of fun.”
The transportation department can see the difference people like Legg and Treboldi make within the team.
“Plainfield Schools is so lucky to have such devoted transportation staff including Marcella and Linette,” says Brooke Orner, PCSC director of communications. “Their joy for their job is shown through their smiling faces each day, and their positivity starts our students’ days off on the right note.”
Treboldi certainly agrees, regarding the power of positivity.
At 91 years old, she’s been serving as a bus aide for the past 20 years.
“I retired and my husband passed away after 53 years of marriage,” she says. “I live alone and I believe if you don’t use it, you lose it. I decided to do something. I love children and started working with the transportation department, and I love it.”
Treboldi, or grandma as she’s known to many, recognized right away the need for her presence in the students’ lives.
“I didn’t realize until I started working on the bus how much the kids needed care and love,” Treboldi says. “One little girl asked if I would come to school and read her a story on grandparents’ day because her grandma wouldn’t do it. I took the day off and went. Had I not, she would have been the only one there without a grandma, and I realized I can do something for these children.”
Like Legg, Treboldi often sees children from her bus at the grocery store, and they often thank her for the impact she made on their lives.
“I see these grown-up kids come up to me at Walmart and say, ‘I was on your bus in kindergarten,’” Treboldi says. “I look forward to going to work every day, and they say I’m known for my sense of humor and a beautiful heart. That makes me feel good.”
Even at Treboldi’s age, she’s still planting in her garden, working out at the aquatic center, and is an active member at her local church. She doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon.
She’s also not afraid to teach, discipline and show the students the love they deserve.
“I have a seat midway through the bus,” she says. “The kids are smart and if you’re not looking, they might do something they’re not supposed to do. I want to see what’s going on in the front and back of the bus. Every once in a while someone gets a little out of hand, but I don’t yell at them and I don’t call them out in front of their friends. I just go back and talk to them by themselves.”
Treboldi says many times the student genuinely apologizes, and all is well.
As far as her relationships with peers, Treboldi loves them all.
“Right now we are so short of drivers and aides,” she says. “I wish we could increase our staff, but not one driver comes in there that I don’t love. We talk and hug every day and when we get someone new, I always welcome them. It’s a family.”
Even with the shortage of bus drivers and aides across the state and beyond, those taking on the responsibility and care for our children’s transportation are valued and appreciated.
“It’s hard to imagine our department without Linette and Marcella,” says Dean Shepard, PCSC director of transportation. “They
both have such high levels of professionalism, dependability, and love of what they do every day for their students.”
For more information about the PCSC transportation department, visit plainfield.k12.in.us.
