Complete Hardscape Design & Installation
EDUCATION
Bus boss He was an entry level driver’s assistant. Now he runs the fleet
BY JEFF CHEW
S
in-command
behind
then-Transportation
In 2009, Pulido started with MUSD as a bus monitor-in-training while working to earn his commercial driver’s license. Monitors act as a second set of eyes for the driver and assist students. After his apprenticeship, he became a driver and drove mostly special needs students who needed more time to get on and off the bus. “It’s a little bit more responsibility because you’re working with students with different challenges,” he said. After serving as a driver for three and a half years, Pulido he was hired as a bus dispatcher. “I did that for a few years,” he said. “You learn the area and do paperwork.” Then, he trained drivers as he gained experience in transportation routing and fleet management, mostly involving the maintenance of vehicles and keeping the MUSD fleet rolling. After achieving mastery of the many facets of school transportation, Pulido was promoted to transportation coordinator, which was second-
ERGIO PULIDO RECALLS sitting behind the wheel of a Maricopa Unified School District bus at age 34, dreaming he’d become a
Director Fred Laguna. “I was able to learn more about the finances of transportation, the budgeting in transportation, all the reports that we have to share with the [Arizona] Department of
transportation boss one day.
Today, at 49, his dream is a reality. Pulido is in charge of not just one bus, but MUSD’s fleet of 37 school buses and 45 drivers. He’s the bus boss, managing the district’s entire school transportation division. “We move about 3,500 students every day, and we’re close to 400 special needs students,” said Pulido, who has worked for the district 15 years. “We’re rarely get any complaints on our work performance.” MUSD’s big yellow buses drive close to a million miles a year. Long road to the long bus Pulido came to Maricopa from California and drove for a cement company until he was laid off in 2008.
Education,” he said. Man for the job
TURF-PAVERS • OUTDOOR KITCHEN • FIREPITS • ALUMAWOOD PERGOLAS • DRIVEWAYS • PATIOS WALKWAYS • POOL DECKS • AND MORE!
By the time Laguna retired in 2018, Pulido was already versed in every facet of the transportation department. He had just overcome the previous year in which an understaffed maintenance shop was plagued with low safety inspection ratings from the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Through all the challenges Pulido has confronted, he said it’s all a matter of attitude and adapting to change. “Whatever seat I have to jump into to obtain my goal, then I’m willing to do that,” Pulido said.
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InMaricopa.com | May 2024
May 2024 | InMaricopa.com
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