Wednesday, June 12, 2024
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Milford (574) 658-4111 • Warsaw (574) 269-2932 • Syracuse (574) 457-3666
114 W. Market, Warsaw, Indiana 46580
ALL RISE — The new Wa-Nee Transportation Building has equipment, which can lift a full-sized bus several feet in the air, allowing for maintenance underneath the vehicle regardless of the weather outdoors.
Transportation Center centralizes vehicle maintenance for Wa-Nee schools Text and Photos by KEITH KNEPP Staff Writer Shortly after the calendar turned to 2024, Wa-Nee Community Schools unveiled a new and important addition to its stable of top-notch facilities for which it has become known. The Wa-Nee Transportation Center became the school district’s first full-service maintenance building for it’s 56 buses. Previously, it had relied on local truck dealership service centers to maintain and repair its large fleet. While the dealerships did an outstanding job of keeping the buses in top running condition, the outsourcing was both expensive and sometimes inconvenient for the school’s transportation department. Even relatively minor maintenance, such as the repairing of seats or a replacing of a bus’s brakes could potentially take the unit off the road and out of service for a period of time. Thanks to the foresight of former Wa-Nee Schools Superintendent Joe Sabo, land was purchased north and east of the NorthWood High School campus in Nappanee. The former farmland has systematically transformed the high school into a campus, according to Transportation Director Amy Rosa, who has been in her position since 2006, when she replaced Scott Schafer. In the past 40 years, only four people have held the role, including Veloris Neff from 1984-91 and Wayne Klotz from 1991-96. In addition to the new transportation center, the acquired land has allowed the school to add its “Field of Dreams” athletic complex, which is home to the Panther softball and baseball teams. A road now also connects the high school’s main parking lots with CR 150, which helps to reduce traffic congestion during
BACK AGAIN — During an open house of the new Wa-Nee Transportation Center, held on the last day of the recently concluded school year, many people came to check out the state-of-the-art facility, located on the campus of NorthWood High School. Pictured from left are Tessa Sauceda; Peg Quintanilla (Neff); Amy Rosa, Wa-Nee transportation director and director of school the school day and athletic events. “Great foresight by our previous administration ... knowing that the baseball fields needed to be revamped at some point, and then expanding beyond,” said Rosa. “At one point, we talked about the administration office and the transportation department being moved here, but the facility didn’t allow for it. The land that we’re on right now was a little to narrow for that, so we separated it out. We’ve been looking at a transportation facility for decades.” She added, “There were notes from Veloris Neff, Wayne Klotz, and Scott Schafer discussing whether or not it
would be cost effective to put up our own garage and hire our own mechanic. For years, it didn’t seem that way, but it definitely had moved in that direction. The operation of transportation has changed so much over the years. It’s more in depth ... when it comes to the legality of some things. We wanted more handson work on the buses to ensure that we were providing the safest transportation for our students.” Rosa said it became very clear the new facility would save money for the school district. She also serves as
safety; Wayne Klotz, former transportation director from 1991-96; Matthew Hostetter, transportation assistant/fleet manager; Eric Jackson, head mechanic; and Jamie Eggers, transportation assistant. Standing on the bus steps are Tori Sauceda and Ann Sauceda (Neff).
the director of school safety and writes a grant every year to help pay for school safety. Her team also helps facilitate the school resource officer program and the overall safety plan of the corporation, including legal compliance and keeping the schools as safe as possible by implementing policies and procedures to help kids stay safe. Wa-Nee now has 22 full-sized buses that operate on natural gas as part of its overall fleet.
Rosa said that every 12 years, the corporation’s buses must be completely disassembled and rebuilt. When that happens, the old diesel engines are being replaced with the new natural gas engines, which she said are, in the long run, less expensive to operate and maintain, as well as cleaner for the environment. The new transportation center includes propane and diesel tanks for refilling the fuel in both types of buses. Rosa said Wa-Nee buses travel approximately 450,000 Continued on page 3