Long-Term Bus Driver, Jayne Ray, Retires

Bus drivers are responsible for getting kids to and from school. After this year, Fair Grove is losing one of its most dedicated drivers. 

Jayne Ray has been driving buses for Fair Grove Schools for nearly 30 years. She started driving buses in August of 1993. Jayne Ray enjoyed her job and strived to be the best bus driver she could be. Jayne Ray said, “I’m going to be a little sad when it’s all over. I am going to miss the kids, even the ones that can be a problem.” 

Oftentimes, many people think that a bus driver’s only job is getting kids to school and home from school, but this is not the case. Bus drivers are also responsible for getting the school’s teams/clubs to and from events. Drivers are often taking a lot of time out of their day as they have to drive to the event, stay at the event until it is completely over, and then drive back home from the event. Ray went on to say, “Some of my favorite times from being a bus driver came from driving the schools teams/clubs to their events.” 

Being a bus driver can leave you with a wide variety of memories, things that Ray was lucky enough to be left with a large amount of. Ray explained, “There were a lot of memories that I got from being a bus driver for Fair Grove. There are some memories that stick out more than others. Some of these memories are when I was able to drive the volleyball team to state two different times. A couple other memories that are special to me are when I got to drive an 8th grade class to Kansas City to Crown Center and also when I got to drive FBLA to Columbia.”

Replacing Jayne Ray won’t be easy with the impact she left as a bus driver for Fair Grove.