Windham cleaned up at a school bus skills competition last week at Sugarloaf USA ski resort in Carrabassett Valley, with several drivers qualifying for a national competition held next summer.

Windham employees took first place in two out of three school bus driving-related contests at the 36th annual Pupil Transportation Safety Conference open to all Maine school departments. In addition, another Windham team came in third in one of the contests.

The event was hosted by the Maine Association for Pupil Transportation.

Mechanic Joe Bell took first place in the service technician competition. He was given a written test and then presented with a bus with 10 to 15 mechanical defects to find.

“I feel good about it,” said Bell, who has been tinkering with engines for the last four decades. “I hope to go further with it.”

The first place winner of each contest will go on to the national competition, but the time and place for the mechanical contest has not been announced.

The team of school bus drivers Donna Minott and John Worrey took first place in the special needs team skills competition. Another Windham team, made up of driver Jackie Ryan and bus aid Ryan Wilson placed third.

The special needs event was divided into three sections. During the first section, team members had to perform a pre-trip safety inspection on a bus. They had to make sure all the parts of the wheelchair-ready bus were in working order, from the lights to the safety belts.

“This is all timed, we’re on the clock when we’re doing this,” said Minott. She said the judges needed to be able to hear them shouting each checked item to their teammate or they wouldn’t get credit.

The second section had them load and secure a wheelchair-bound person on the bus and then help them off the bus.

The last part of the event was a disaster scenario. They were not told ahead of time, but they had to respond as if a bus carrying three children had been hit by a massive truck.

“They had stuffed animals we were pretending were people,” said Minott while recalling when she had to carry a big, brown teddy bear out the back door as if it were a child.

“We do a lot of the trips for special needs kids,” said Worrey, adding that it was teamwork that won Minott and him the competition.

The national competition they will go on to will be held at the beginning of next July in Arkansas.

“To be able to have people attend, they have to hold it after school gets out (for the summer),” said transportation director Margo Fournier when asked why nationals are held 11 months from now.

The conference also had a number of workshops. Worrey said he learned a lot from a discussion on how bus drivers’ attitudes can improve student behavior.

Wilson, who expects to soon graduate from being a bus aide to a full-fledged driver, said he’ll still have the same mission.

“We make sure everyone has a nice, safe ride,” he said.

BusSafety1: Windham bus driver Donna Minott placed first with her partner John Worrey in a state-wide contest centered around safely transporting handicapped children last week at the Pupil Transportation Safety Conference at Sugarloaf.BusSafety2-3: Windham bus drivers Donna Minott and John Worrey show off the trophies they won at the Pupil Transportation Safety Conference held at Sugarloaf last week. They placed first in a state-wide contest centered around safely transporting handicapped children.BusSafety2-3: Windham bus drivers Donna Minott and John Worrey show off the trophies they won at the Pupil Transportation Safety Conference held at Sugarloaf last week. They placed first in a state-wide contest centered around safely transporting handicapped children.BusSafety4-5: Windham bus mechanic Joe Bell holds the first-place award plaque he won at the Pupil Transportation Safety Conference held at Sugarloaf. He placed first in the state in a contest on servicing school buses. BusSafety4-5: Windham bus mechanic Joe Bell holds the first-place award plaque he won at the Pupil Transportation Safety Conference held at Sugarloaf. He placed first in the state in a contest on servicing school buses.