they keep us rolling
Most school days, a long, serpentine line of forest-green buses and vans appears in the drive around the Jacobs Gym and Seal Center, ready for use that afternoon by Collegiate’s athletic teams.
The vehicles are gassed up, clean, and ready to roll.
They’ve passed a thorough safety check.
The undertaking, basically an all-day process, doesn’t happen by chance.
It’s the result of the commitment to excellence of Glen Dandridge, the school’s director of transportation and maintenance, and his colleagues Walter George and Robert Burnam.
“Robert and Walter take pride in what they do,” said Dandridge, who oversees the operation. “They’re ex-military. They’re sure-enough professionals.
“I enjoy working for an organization that prides itself in having great equipment. We do what we have to do to get the job done.”
When Dandridge came on board in 1980, the school owned a couple of vans, the headmaster’s station wagon, and a pickup truck, and he handled their upkeep by himself.
As the school’s needs expanded and the Robins Campus came to fruition, the fleet grew to seven full-size buses, 10 vans, and a variety of service vehicles.
Collegiate employs seven part-time drivers with CDL (commercial driver’s license) certification to handle the large buses. Coaches and other faculty generally drive the 14-passenger vans which require only a regular driver’s license to operate.
“Early on,” Dandridge added, “I figured we’d get a handful of vehicles and that would be it.
“Our transportation needs have really taken off. I can’t see it slowing down.”
George and Burnam, both experienced and CDL-qualified, manage the fleet’s day-to-day upkeep to ensure that there are no surprises when the driver slips behind the wheel with his most precious payload: our students.
“We do an old Army term called ‘first echelon maintenance,’” explained George, a Johnston County, NC, native.
“We keep the buses and vans clean, put oil in, check the tires, simple stuff like that.
“Anything major, we have a certified shop to take it to.”
Still robust at 80, George served in the Army during the Korean War and worked for the federal government in munitions at Ft. Belvoir for 37 years.
Retirement didn’t take.
“I liked to fish, but I can’t fish anymore because the salt water just drained me,” he said.
“I was driving a bus for the St. Francis Adult Home on Southside. We came out here. We went to the Pageant. There was an opening (at Collegiate) so I came on part-time.
“I’d rather come around here and make myself useful. I’m here to stay as long as they’ll keep me.”
George is a stickler for detail.
“I’m hung up on cleanliness,” he said. “I hate to send a vehicle out dirty.
“Every time one comes in, I’ll clean it, sweep it, throw out the trash, fill out the running sheet so it’ll be ready, and make sure it has plenty of fuel in it.”
Burnam is a Douglas Freeman graduate who earned an associate’s degree in printing at Chowan College, then gained a wealth of experience during a four-year hitch in the Air Force in California and Korea.
“I did a lot of electrical and electronics (work) on fighter jets and weapons systems,” he said.
“I worked with a squadron lead crew responsible for training all the weapons load crews on proficiencies with munitions, functional checks, and how to operate weapons systems on the fighters.”
Once he left the military, Burnam, who came to Collegiate in May 2011, worked 12 years for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Washington and Oregon.
“That was a do-all, take-care-of-whatever-needed-to-be-taken-care-of maintenance thing,” he said.
“We did carpentry work, worked on vehicles, raised a lot of salmon and trout, fed them every day, helped them grow, kept their environments and raceways clean, maintained water quality.”
Each day at 7 a.m., George and Burnam report for work, fulfill their duties with dedication and without complaint, and gain pleasure simply from doing their job, albeit often in anonymity.
“You get up, the sun is shining, and you make the day the best you can,” said Burnam.
“Everybody here is very cordial, very friendly. There’s a lot of teamwork. Everybody gets along and gets the job done.”
