By Dawn Fluhler

Maconaquah School District assistant superintendent Dr. James Callane coordinated the school bus shuttle service between Grissom AFB and the Extreme Makeover build site.

Callane met with “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” location managers a week before the Cowan-Brown build. Together, they devised an inclimate weather transportation plan for the build week. Following the downpour early in the week, the plan was put into effect.

“We had a rotation of bus drivers working three hour shifts,” Callane said. “Since our corporation has four spare buses, we were able to use those buses during the hours when we were transporting students to and from school.”

Substitute bus drivers drove the spare buses when regular bus drivers were transporting students.

Callane created spreadsheets of the days and hours for drivers to haul people from the base to the site, and to keep track of bus and fuel use. The drivers were scheduled and worked non-stop for five days.

“We donated the cost of the wear and tear, but we did submit a bill to ABC for the cost of the fuel,” Callane said. “That really is taxpayer money, and that’s not something we could have donated.”

The amount billed to ABC was nearly $4,900. The value of the bus drivers’ time, which they donated, was more than $3,000. The school corporation owns the buses.

“Our bus drivers were fantastic in helping with this project,” he said. “They have good hearts.”

Callane was there, too. He greeted bus riders as they boarded and exited the buses, and he visited the build site.

The bus drivers said they appreciated “Jamey,” as they call him, for all of his work coordinating the project during a time when his mother was extremely ill and his wife was nearing the end of a pregnancy.

“We had a great time with this,” Callane said. “As we say at Maconaquah with our bus drivers: ‘That’s the way we roll.’”