Back in 1978, Mary Carr was a mother with 3 boys and a husband, Dick, who worked as a police officer in Seattle. With energy to spare, she decided she could help the family bring in some extra income and started looking for a job. What she found was school bus driving, and she has ridden her buses to the top of her department.

And now as 21 years as the Highline School District's transportation director, Carr is retiring on Dec. 31.
One thing she probably won't miss is dealing with the irksome combination of school buses and snow.
As the district's bus boss, snow brings lots of extra work. It means Carr gets up at 3 a.m. to call her assistant, Cindy Hanson, who lives in Federal Way. Then they both go out and drive the district. Hanson covers the south; Carr, the north.

Carr takes the district Jeep out. If she has to use 4-wheel drive, that section will be closed to buses. The drivers must get new routes that will circumnavigate the closed sections. The affected kids need to be notified to walk to emergency snow stops.

When Carr and Hanson arrive at the office, they compare notes and call the Tukwila, Kent and Federal Way school districts. Six different forecasting stations are consulted.

Then, Carr calls Superintendent John Welch with recommendations about starting school 1 hour late, 2 hours late, or canceling school altogether. Welch makes the final call and the media is informed.
As a bus driver, Carr was occasionally required to put chains on her bus.

"Every bus has chains aboard, and we all have to know how to put them on. They are really heavy - about 40 lb or so. You need gloves, warm clothes, and a big garbage bag to lie on. "You have to get the chains between the dual tires and use rubber cross straps to hold them in place. It wasn't a 'Roadeo' event, but it could be," Carr declared.

A coworker, Linda Simpier, has a 'LET IT SNOW DANCE.', while Carr is famous for her 'NO SNOW DANCE.'
Simpier recalls, "I will always remember the day when we heard it 'MAY SNOW' and I got so excited. I came to work the next day and I opened my door . . . and all these cotton balls fell on my head!

"I jumped back from the door as I wasn't quite sure at the moment what was coming down. [Then] I noticed that my computer, chair, desk, walls, phone and whatever else you could get to was totally covered with cotton balls."

Carr told Simpier, '"HIS IS THE ONLY SNOW YOU ARE GETTING.'"

Then Carr proceeded to do the 'NO SNOW DANCE' again.

As a bus beginner back in 1978, Carr's training was about 45 minutes on two subsequent days. The pedals had 4 x 4 pieces of wood attached on top because the buses were built for tall men and the women drivers' legs were too short.

She learned how to double clutch - "It was tricky - I found myself practicing in my sleep," Carr remembered.

She got her Class B license on the second day and was turned loose to drive a 28 foot mid-size bus.
In 1982, Carr won the Regional School Bus Safety 'Roadeo' in Kent. Some of the tasks: complete a lane change in 38 feet with her 35-foot-long bus; ease her bus through an opening with just 2 inches to spare on either side; parallel park; back into a stall; stop with the rear bumper directly over a line. She bested over 60 drivers from 17 local school districts.

Another treasured highlight of her career was driving 6th graders to and from Camp Waskowitz in North Bend, and of taking kids from camp to the Cedar River watershed, seeing deer and elk, finding animal tracks and beaver sticks, and watching the kids measure water clarity.

A DVD of her photos and memories is in the works, and she intends to donate it to the camp director, her friend Roberta McFarland.

Over the years, Carr spent her own money to learn how to train bus drivers, and put in non-paid extra hours to learn the Edulog system, which the district uses to track both transportation and education issues.

A transfer in June 1988 to the research planning office lasted for a year, after which she became a driver trainer safety specialist. Three months after that, in Nov.1989, she became transportation director.

According to her staff and drivers, Carr has been a great boss. One of the drivers mentioned how grateful she was that Carr came to the scene of an accident (which she does for all accidents) and then supported her personally outside of work.

Another told of Mary's great sense of humor.

"I try to make all my people laugh as much as I can. I do it to relieve the tension," she says. "Sometimes the office is frenetic and it helps to breathe. Sometimes the kids can be a handful. Traffic can be bad. And sometimes driving conditions are terrible."

Carr said she is most proud of her office staff, safe drivers and good mechanics. She is also proud that the number of buses out of service, which was 28 percent before she implemented inspection changes, is now down to 3 percent.

In retirement, Carr plans to visit Alaska where her grandfather made dog sleds, sew for a month with her 85-year-old aunt, and visit all the states she and Dick have not yet seen. Will they drive? Of course!

At present, there are 105 buses maintained by the Highline School District. The department also cares for all maintenance, security and food service vehicles. The district is hiring drivers, and the pay and benefits are good. Log onto http://wwwhsd401.org and go to the District Directory/Transportation section and select "Join Our Team" at the bottom of the page.