TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENT
JENKINS COUNTY BOARD of EDUCATION
1152 E WINTHORPE AVE.
MILLEN GA 30442
478-982-6009
478-982-6002 fax

Melissa Williams
Transportation Coordinator

Superintendent
Talmadge Fries

March 14, 2011

Carlton Allen
State Director of Pupil Transportation
1654 Twin Towers East
Atlanta, GA 30334

RE: Valor Award Nomination

Mr Allen,

At the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year, I was appointed the new Transportation Coordinator for the Jenkins County School System. I knew that several things needed to be changed, I was a driver for 22 years and I draw upon that experience.

One thing that I wanted to change was Emergency Evacuations, the way we did things did not work. I searched and found the training dvds for students and drivers. I made several changes First I supplied the Safe Pupil Emergency Evacuation DVD to all grade levels and all schools, so it could be presented in the classroom on the smart boards and power point systems and this could be done when the students could not go outside because of weather or during the connections class's. This way, class instruction time is not interrupted with the students going out to a bus for evacuation training during class. Second, all drivers are given Emergency Evacuation training and the Safe Pupil Emergency Training dvd is used for classroom training. Third, all drivers are required to do evacuation training with their bus 3 times a year and sign the proper documentation.

Next, to make sure all students know how to exit the bus in case of an emergency, all Athletic/Field trip drivers, this includes coaches and teachers, are required to do an Emergency Evacuation Presentation before each trip and sign the proper documentation.

On October 27, 2009, when Mr. Anfield evacuated the bus, the training proved to be deciding factor, the students were calm and everyone exited the bus safely. The photo disc includes photos of the students at the evacuation site awaiting a replacement bus and most of the students were very calm and not upset. Please view a page of the photo's that were sent with the letter to us.

Danny Hendricks Valor Award to Charles Anfield newspaper article.

Sincerely,

Talmadge Fries
Transportation Coordinator
Jenkins County BOE