LMCS bus drivers’ secrets revealed

By Rachel Zuckerman | Manor ink

One of the most pressing questions that many young people have is this: What do school bus drivers do between their shifts? Are they secret superheroes? Or do they live among us as normal people? Manor Ink interviewed three of Rolling V’s trusty drivers in an attempt to find out.

First up was Andrew Appenauer, who’s been a bus driver for five years. When asked the pressing question, he answered that there are a few simple things that occupy his down time. “I manage a trailer park,” he said. Other than that, he has a few hobbies that he enjoys. He also does normal stuff around the house. After his afternoon driving shift, he does shopping, makes dinner and watches TV with his mother.

Now that we’ve learned about how one driver fills the time, let’s learn about the next.

Joe Dimilte has been a bus driver for 27 years. He’s the longest working bus driver in the Manor. While other bus drivers do normal everyday activities between shifts, Dimilte drives runs all day, for BOCES and other institutions. One thing the Ink didn’t know is that bus drivers must complete continuous training in case of emergencies or other things that might happen on the buses. “We have refresher courses which are mandatory,” said Dimilte. “They’re state mandated, and we have two of them a year ... and it’s usually very boring.” While he doesn’t do runs for sports teams, he does drive the late bus on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Now for our last-but-not-least bus driver.

The driver of bus #488, and my bus driver as well, Pete Piscitelli – or Pisc (he shortened his last name) – has been a bus driver for 15 to 20 years. Pisc had just gone to Home Depot the day he was interviewed and had gotten two new fruit trees. “A Golden Delicious apple and a Fuji apple,” Pisc said. “I planted them today.” For the last three years Pisc has been planting apple trees and has been replacing the dead ones with new ones. If a driver is out for a day, Pisc will take their place. Usually, before shifts, he eats breakfast, and during the day, he listens to the news and does stuff around the house. Just like Dimilte, he does the additional training as well as small, bi-monthly refreshers. Pisc also does multi-day trips for firemen, college teams and other groups.

Now that we’ve learned about bus drivers and the individual lives that they have, are there any more childhood mysteries to be solved?