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New Hillsborough school bus chief vows to respect employees, students

 
Jim Beekman started as a shop foreman in Osceola County.
Jim Beekman started as a shop foreman in Osceola County.
Published Oct. 14, 2014

TAMPA — As head of transportation for the Hillsborough County School District, Jim Beekman is taking over a department that in recent months was racked with worker unrest.

But he's been there before. In Osceola County, there were racial tensions after his assistant was demoted, missing inventory and allegations against him that turned out to be unfounded.

In Orange County he took over a system that, he said, had a "lack of credibility with the community." But he said Monday, "We got that turned around quite a bit."

Meeting with reporters on his first day of work, Beekman said he still has much to learn about the local bus fleet, the workforce and the department's culture.

But he has clear ideas about the importance of a strong bus system and the needs of students and drivers.

"Kids need us to be excellent today," he said. "Transportation folks are good folks. By nature, they're in this business because they care about kids and they love kids. They're not here to be multimillionaires."

Beekman pledged to treat employees with respect and offer them training to encourage good student behavior, a process the district initiated in the wake of the driver complaints.

He's aware of the driver shortage, a chronic problem in the nation's districts. In Orange County he found it helpful to hold job fairs in the communities and speed up the hiring process — running background checks and taking fingerprints during the interviews, for example.

"When somebody needs a job, they need a job today," he said.

He said he hopes morale in Hillsborough will improve after union members vote on a new contract, which raises starting hourly pay for drivers from $11.08 to $12.21 and for mechanics from $12.21 to $13.47.

At 53, Beekman has been in school transportation most of his adult life. He worked his way through Florida Southern College as a diesel mechanic. In Osceola, where he began, he was a shop foreman, worked in the parts department and rose to the director's level.

Problems there in 2007 included bus batteries and oil that went missing from a bus depot, and an act of sabotage on the first day of school that disabled 120 buses.

There was friction between Beekman and the demoted assistant, and a state audit found the department needed better inventory controls.

While Beekman was never found to be at fault, he retired. And, before he was hired as transportation manager in Orange County, he spent 2 1/2 years teaching high school geometry and coaching football.

He's been honored many times for his transportation leadership. He's a past president of the Florida Association for Pupil Transportation and has presented at workshops around the country.

But he said he learned his most profound lesson teaching at-risk students in Osceola.

"It is an eye-opening experience to deal with kids who are excited because they're turning 18 years old and their parents walk in and give them a cardboard box and say, 'I'm done. Find your own place to live,' " he said.

That exposure made him more empathetic and reinforced the urgency of meeting students' needs.

"I always tell drivers that the second-most important thing they're going to learn is how to drive the bus," he said. "The first most important thing is how to take care of our kids."

Information from the Orlando Sentinel was used in this report. Reach Marlene Sokol at (813) 226-3356 or msokol@tampabay.com. Follow @marlenesokol.