Photo: KFCS Superintendent Keith A. Brown, left, with KFCS Interim Director of Transportation, Wesley Mueller
Dan Stearns and Klamath Union Digital Media have come up with a clever way to thank our many employees at Klamath Falls City Schools.
The graphic design class at KU came up with a design on a t-shirt to say "thank you" to our KFCS staff and all the hard work done at the district.
The most recent hand out of "thank you" t-shirts is for Interim Director of Transportation, Wesley Mueller.
Mueller, better known by his peers as "Buddy," has worked for Klamath Falls City Schools for the last three years. Mueller has taken the role of Interim Director of Transportation for nearly three months.
He does not have a typical 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. job. His job requires him to find out which buses and routes need drivers. Mueller typically has to be at work as early as 4 a.m. He has to communicate with the parents of KFCS students, schedule trips throughout the week and the weekend.
Mueller, who also travels to the district's various schools as a bus driver during the mornings and afternoons, helps making sure the buses do not break down or get into a wreck and if needed, has to get them and fix the problem.
"We will train them to be a bus driver; we will get them started and figure it out," Mueller said. "They have to get their permit first and then their ELD training, which is electric training we just started doing and then there is pre-trip training on the school bus. Then there is behind the wheel training and then they get their license. They have to do a core class their first day and pass a test to get their CDL and turn that into ODE."
Mueller said people can earn their training through Klamath Community College or can come to him personally and he will get them setup as fast as possible to be a bus driver. Mueller said the turnaround to become a bus driver can be less than three weeks.
"If they earn a degree at KCC, they will only need to do their core training, medical and first aid ... they would have to have school bus endorsements like air brake. If they have a Class A, that works but still need the endorsements," Mueller said. "A lot of people, normally or in the past, come in and get their permit with all their endorsements and we will start their training from there."
