October 19-25, 2025 is Education Week. Our SEIU-West members work tirelessly to provide children in Saskatchewan the supports they need to succeed.
Ever wondered what being a school bus driver would be like? Nadine is a bus driver in southern Saskatchewan and has described this role perfectly for us. Have a read:
What does a bus driver's job involve?
Her days involve a circle check of the bus every morning and proper driving log documentation. She leaves at the same time every day to start her bus route. She maintains a pickup time with 1-2 minutes at each stop, generally speaking, so each rider will not be out in the elements for long.
Nadine drives the speed limit or under, constantly monitoring for other drivers, especially when using her stop arm and flashing lights.
She greets each child as they enter the bus.
She uses the interior mirror in the bus to check on passengers and the "eyes in the back of my head that I developed when I became a mother".
Although she is not a teacher like a teacher in the classroom, she spends the majority of her time on the bus teaching manners and basic skills like getting along with others.
- She teaches her riders to talk to those that are serving them with politeness and respect and teaches them patience and empathy.
- She uses "please and thank you" words and teaches them to do the same. Patience is taught when they have to wait to tell her something because of traffic or wait to move to a different seat.
- They practice empathy when they get a new batch of kindergarten students who have to learn to sit in a seat without a booster seat (or duct tape - just kidding).
- Sometimes she has older students sit with misbehaving younger students to mentor them on the bus.
- They practice respect on the bus by learning to use inside voices (so they don't disturb the concentration of the driver or bother other riders), by not throwing garbage on the floor of the bus, and by following bus safety rules. They may feel like standing up, but they respect the safety rules and remain sitting.
- Nadine utilizes a bus seating plan and changes it often if it doesn't work due to personalities clashing or bickering.
- She teaches her riders manners and how to ride a bus without distracting the driver or other riders. They talk about safety all the time and expectations for behaviour.
After the last child has been delivered to school or home, Nadine tidies the bus. She fills out her attendance reports and makes notes of bus behaviours in a notebook to follow trends. She might need to move kids around or notify the school if difficult behaviours continue.
She does some of these tasks for legal and safety reasons to fulfill the role of bus driver.
She does some of the tasks for herself because a quiet bus is an easier bus to drive and time spent teaching kids how to ride on a bus is time recouped exponentially later in the year in harmony.
She does some of the tasks for her small-sized customers.
She lets the kids have a chance to contribute their favourite songs to the bus playlist. She does check the songs for immoral themes and bad words before they get added. The kids like the bus playlist and Nadine has learned to appreciate Taylor Swift. Certain favourite songs get added to the Sing-Along Playlist and nearly every child knows the words and can sing along in an appropriate inside voice. She provides fidget toys and books on the bus for restless riders and her small-sized customers appreciate that as well.
Lastly, she often decorates the outside of the bus with something appropriate to the season. She drives an urban route and rarely even achieves 50 km per hour, so nothing is falling off. She thinks she does the bus decor for herself, but the kids love it too!
How did Nadine become a bus driver?
She was working as a "Hot Shot Driver" in the oil patch contracted to a company for about four years, driving a Ram 4500 4-wheel drive with a 40 ft trailer. She delivered pipes, rods, elevators and other necessary equipment to service rigs or drilling rigs around Estevan and Swift Current and other points in the southern part of Saskatchewan and western Manitoba.
She went on leave when her mom passed away in 2012, and her siblings and her realized that their dad needed help in his grief. When she was ready to return about eighteen months later, having helped her dad sell his house and move into an assisted living facility, the oil patch was suffering. When oil prices plummeted in 2014/2015, Saskatchewan's oil industry experienced a significant slowdown, leading to job losses, a sharp decline in drilling activity, and a negative impact on the provincial economy. Service companies were hit hard, with many laying off workers.
Nadine didn't have a job to return to, as the company she had contracted to had sold more than half its fleet of trucks. A friend suggested that the schools needed bus drivers, so she checked that out.
Although she held a Class 1A license in Saskatchewan, she did have to get her school bus endorsement which involved another written exam and a driving exam. She passed and started work as a spare bus driver for the School Division driving for its many routes. They liked that Nadine had so much experience driving rural roads during her career.
Driving school bus was a big change from driving a truck and trailer. Nadine told her friends that once the trailer was loaded, it didn't talk to her all the way to the lease like the bus kids did. The noise inside the bus was the hardest thing to get used to. Nadine learned from some great bus drivers how to control the interior of the bus. She did quite a few term contracts ranging from 3-6 months covering for drivers who were sick or needed extended time off. When she got a full-time bus driving position in 2019 driving a 72-passenger bus in the spring of 2019, she was delighted. She could utilize muscle memory in driving the same bus all of the time, meaning she didn't have to think where the lights were or anything about the controls. It was a new bus with air ride suspension, and her route was in town. She was able to utilize all that she had learned from driving other routes and from hobnobbing with bus drivers.
She does like the hours of bus driving, especially after having worked in the oil patch and having owned service businesses.
What qualifications did Nadine need?
Nadine shared that she has a lot of experience in customer service having owned various service businesses. "Kids are just small sized customers."
She holds the appropriate driver's licenses and has years of driving experience. She is probably overqualified to drive school bus as she has every class of license available in Saskatchewan, including a motorcycle license. She shared that the most important one is the school bus endorsement.
She's a mother and grandmother and homeschooled her own children for a number of years. We agree with her that that qualifies her for a lot.
Nadine has a lot of memorable moments.
Just the other day, a sweet Kindergarten girl gave her two beautiful red/orange maple leaves when she got on the bus. She is just 4, so that was special.
She also remembers when a young boy licked the window at his seat in December and got his tongue stuck on the frost. Of course, in panic, he yanked it off and left the top layer of skin stuck to the ice. She then started reminding children not to lick the window as it got colder, like a public service announcement.
She was constantly reminding children to not lean in the aisles. They want to lean out and see who's behind them to talk. They have a rule in the bus - no leaning out into the aisle. One day a kid who was always doing that fell out on his head when she braked suddenly for a cat crossing the road. It was all she could do to not laugh. He was shocked and maybe it hurt but he didn't admit to that. He stopped leaning out into the aisle though.
Nadine and all the bus drivers across this province, THANK YOU! We think it takes an incredibly special person to drive a bus full of children, and this interview was a great explainer of all the other skills needed to get children safely to school. Our children are in good hands with drivers like Nadine.
