As the sun creeps over the horizon, Linda Skunta rolls into Revere High School’s student parking lot. Once the middle schoolers and high schoolers are off the bus, Skunta does a quick check, looking for lost items. She finishes her search and heads back out onto the road to pick up the elementary school students. As Skunta finishes both loops, she heads home to work on any miscellaneous tasks. In about an hour, Skunta returns to the high school to work the cash register in the lunchroom. As the school day ends, Skunta gets back on her bus and takes the older and younger students home. After taking the bus to the bus garage and doing one last sweep inside, she heads home and gets ready for the next day’s challenges.

Skunta has served as a bus driver at Revere for the past 25 years, after she was hired by Shirley Scott. She is currently the driver for bus W.

“Before I was a bus driver, I had an office job. I did data entry for my company, similar to an accounting job or IT job. I spent a while there, but unfortunately, the company was sold, and I was going to end up out of a job. So I started looking around the area for new work,” Skunta said.

 Before this, Skunta had never worked as a bus driver or a commercial driver of any kind. Although there are no obvious similarities between the two, the lack of likeness, however, does not mean that Skunta dislikes her job, far from it in fact.

“Being taught to be a bus driver was a really fun experience. I saw an ad at Hillcrest Elementary (now Richfield Elementary). I forgot what it said, but it made me laugh, so I thought ‘well, what the heck.’ The school is giving free training. I’m going to be out of a job, and I love driving, so at least I should go over and talk to them,” Skunta said.

When Skunta went to the high school after seeing the ad, this choice would kick off a completely new part of her life. For as much as she enjoyed being a bus driver, it wasn’t easy for Skunta to become one.

“The most difficult part of the job is probably just passing all the tests before you can be a bus driver, for instance, the CDL test (Commercial Drivers License). After that, you need to learn to do pre-trip inspections of the bus, a driving test comes next, which is pretty simple. Then a written test is another one, the process is very similar to getting your normal driver’s license,” Skunta said.

A CDL is a driver’s license someone needs to operate heavy machinery. Operators of trucks, buses, trailers and hazardous material vehicles all require one. In 1986 in the US, the Commercial Motor Vehicle Safety Act set up minimum requirements a driver needs to follow to be issued a CDL. There are three classes of CDLs: Class A, Class B, and Class C. Class A allows someone to drive things like trailer buses and tractor-trailers. Class B includes vehicles like garbage trucks and buses. Class C covers single vehicles 26,000 lbs or less and usually covers vehicles designated as carrying hazardous materials. 

One aspect of being a bus driver for Skunta is observing how younger kids interact and contrasting that with the behavior of the older kids. 

“When it comes to the different kids I bus and their age groups, I enjoy both of them for different reasons. It’s nice to watch the older ones mature and find their sense of humor, their purpose in life, what they want to do, and all the little things that make each of them unique. The younger ones are just a riot every day. You never know what’s going to come out of their mouths or the antics they’ll get into on the bus that day,” Skunta said.

Skunta has watched many children come and go throughout the years and has had the pleasure of bussing many of their siblings as well. Recently, many students’ and drivers’ situations with the buses have changed though because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Right now, we are very desperate for new drivers at Revere. That’s just about the only major part of the job that has changed with COVID for bus drivers. When it comes to normal changes, those can be just new drivers or old ones retiring. Most drivers also have changes to their routes each year with new kids,” Skunta said.

Route changes for drivers occur often and do not tend to affect the old routes, after all, Revere is not the biggest district in the area.

“Someone moves, and the paperwork changes. Now the person gets on Bus D, for example, instead of Bus B, and the driver adds that stop to their route. Of course, the change is determined based on the bus driver’s already existing route. There would be some issues if a driver’s route was, say, fifteen minutes longer because of just one kid,” Skunta said.

Freshman John Kinder is someone who went through the route change onto Skunta’s bus.

“I changed to bus W after moving and not much was different for me. Besides the new faces and bus timing, I didn’t notice much at all. There’s also always kids in your grade on each bus, so I didn’t have a problem not knowing anyone,” Kinder said.

The route changes can affect the earlier and later routes on the day. One of Skunta’s favorite parts of the job during the days in the morning and afternoon is to watch the differences between the younger and older bus riders.

“In the mornings when I’m taking the older kids to school, it’s normally very quiet. The noise difference is probably the biggest difference between the grades I’ve noticed. While most of the older kids will sleep on the bus in the morning, the younger kids are all wired up and ready to go. As the kids get older, they tend to become more relaxed on the bus as they get more work,” Skunta said.

The job for Skunta itself hasn’t changed much throughout the years, however, Skunta’s co-workers and the climate surrounding bus drivers currently have. Freshman Aaron French is one of Skunta’s many regular passengers.

“This should be my eighth year riding Mrs. Skunta’s bus. The past two years have been much different than the ones before. Aside from new kids on the bus, not much normally changes. Mrs. Skunta every day still says ‘good morning’ with a smile and is very kind to everyone on the bus,” French said.

When Skunta is not working, she is spending as much time as possible taking care of and playing with her grandchildren.