CSD Bus Rodeo 2022

On a hot summer morning, a group of brave administrators — mostly school principals and assistant principals — saddled up for a little bus wrangling at Canyons District’s first by-invitation bus rodeo. Typically reserved for Transportation Department trainees, the bus rodeo is an obstacle course designed to put greenhorns through their paces in preparation to take their Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) test.

Today’s modified course was opened to a handful of administrators so they could experience first-hand the responsibilities — and some of the rewards — of driving a school bus. “Getting children safely to school each day, rain or shine, is obviously our No. 1 duty. But the job is so much more than that. Our drivers are often the first adults to greet students in the morning and the last to see them off in the afternoons,” said Canyons Transportation Director Jeremy Wardle. “It’s a great job where you can really make a difference in students’ lives.” Patience and a calm-under-pressure demeanor are highly recommended. As Midvalley Assistant Principal Dan Ashbridge learned at the rodeo — which was, literally and figuratively, his first — “there are a lot of points that drivers have to pay attention to while keeping kids safe and happy, and everyone safe on the road. It’s a big job.”

But Canyons Trainer and Risk Manager Randy Schwartz says the technical aspects of driving a bus are “easier than you think.” Of course, it helps to have someone of his caliber on your team. Schwartz has competed in global bus rodeo competitions, and once took third place at an international contest drawing some of the world’s best drivers. His best piece of advice: “Trust your mirrors. Use your mirrors.” Ashbridge must have taken those words to heart. He excelled at steering 40 feet of steel through an impossibly tight serpentine course of orange cones, both forward and backward. But it was the speed and parallel parking skills of his colleagues that earned them bragging rights and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place trophies. The winners of CSD’s 2022 rodeo challenge are: Bella Vista Elementary Principal Eric Gardner (1st place), East Midvale Elementary Principal Matt Nelson (2nd place), and East Sandy Elementary Principal Bryan Rudes (3rd place).

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