The 23rd Annual Conference and Equipment show was held June
8-12, 1996 at the DFW Hyatt Regency in Grapevine, Texas. The Theme for the
conference was "Transportation..The Wheels of Education".
"Transportation..The Wheels of Education" began to take form when
Jesse Soto passed the gavel to Fred Oppermann. Fred had appointed all of his
chairpersons and committee members before the 22nd Annual Conference and all
were introduced at the Austin Conference. The Executive committee for the 23rd
Annual Conference was:
President Fred Oppermann
President-elect Joe Glover
Secretary Ron Anderson
Treasurer John Douglas
Historian Sally Morgan
Area Director 01 Sandra Riggs
Area Director 02 Jerry Richard
Area Director 03 Marcia Edge
Area Director 04 Al Rath
Area Director 05 Jonas Ybarra
Ex-Officio Jesse Soto
Ex. Secretary Diane Sherwood
Over 900 people attended the Texas Association for Pupil Transportation
Convention. The highlight of the conference came at the closing session, when
Ronnie Jordan, a former assistant superintendent with Grapevine-Colleyville
School District who asked for his old job back as an elementary school principal
because he missed the children, delivered a speech on loving the school
children.
Certification courses were offered which enabled attendees to be certified as
Pupil Transportation Specialist, Supervisors, or Officials. Each of the 11
courses had a full enrollment of 40 people over the two days they were offered,
the best response since the program was started in 1991.
Detective Lyle Price of the Temple Police Department conducted a workshop on
child abuse awareness. Sam Schiller of the Dallas Police Department offered a
two-hour session on Gang Recognition and Crime Prevention.
Other sessions were devoted to Special Education Needs, Driver Training and
using the Internet. Two workshops of the 20 offered were devoted to regulatory
changes in Texas brought about by Senate Bill #1 which now placed school
district under the authority of the Department of Public Safety instead of the
Texas Education Agency in dealing with bus drivers training as well as bus
driver physicals.
Technician programs were presented on brake problems; overall trouble shooting
and wheelchair lift maintenance. In addition, 66 venders participated in the
trade show.
The Billingsley Scholarship went to Billy Morgan of Tatum, Texas. The TAPT/Chalk
Vocational Scholarship went to Asiadrin Nicole Young of Karnack, Texas. The
Chemsearch Regular Driver of the Year Award went to Jo Nell Clark of Spring
I.S.D. and the Q' Straint Special Needs Driver Award went to Admon Burks of
Dallas I.S.D.
Jesse Soto, Nominating Committee Chairman introduced and outstanding slate of
candidates at the 1st General Session. The new officers were presented on
Tuesday evening. Joe Glover was elected to lead TAPT into 1996-1997 school year
as state president. Other officers elected were:
President-elect Ron Anderson
Secretary Marcia Edge
Treasurer Bonnie Russell
Historian Ronnie Slemmons
New Area Director 01 Connie Bean
New Area Director 03 Charles Whitley
New Area Director 05 Walter Prothro
Wednesday morning at the Honoree Breakfast two members were honored. In order to
be selected an individual must have helped to further the goals and ideals of
the organization through their commitment and have their names added to this
prestigious list of Honorees. Bob Hunnicutt and Ron Dyer were announced as joint
Honorees. Bob served the organization for 1986-1991 as an officer of TAPT and
was a key force in implementing the TAPT Certification Program. Ron Dyer
untiringly gave his talents and expertise in helping TAPT members better
understand how the General Service Commission could help school districts
purchase school buses and equipment. The Vendor Honoree was Larry Hemphill.
At the Executive Committee meeting in Dallas/Fort Worth on January 27, 1996, the
board approved a one-year trial period to put TAPT online with the Internet.
Jaime Gallego (Resource Committee Chairperson? Was given the go-ahead to develop
a workshop for the annual conference on the T.A.P.T. Web Page and the Internet.
"Train the Trainer" takes off June 1995. TAPT in cooperation with TEA,
DPS, and TX DOT launched an innovative program for improving driver-training
programs across the State. Bill Cloyd of the TEEX Transportation Division at
Texas A&M coordinated the program. Mr. Cloyd and his cadre of transportation
professionals from around the state graduated the 1st class of 40 transportation
directors and driver trainers in June 1995.
"Train the Trainer" moved from the dream state to reality largely
because of Carla White, TX DOT, who was instrumental in acquiring the grant
money to fund the new project.
