Role model, mentor, dedicated professional. These are just a few words people who know and work with Dorothy Dorman use to describe the winner of the small bus division of the 2025 National School Transportation Association School Bus Driver International Safety Competition. 

“She can drive anything,” Alan Funk, Wichita North Lot location manager for First Student bus transportation company, said of Dorman. “You put her in something yellow and she can drive it.” 

Dorman has been a driver for First Student since 2008, the company that contracts with Wichita Unified School District 259, and has been competing in bus driving contests since 2009. She was the overall state champion at the Kansas driving competition in early June in Derby. She followed that up with the first-place win in the small bus category at the international competition a few weeks later in Austin, Texas, which included a written test and a rigorous road course, testing her knowledge and driving skills under pressure. Dorman is the first bus driver from Kansas to win in a category at the international competition.     

“I was in total shock,” said Dorman, recalling when she heard her name announced as the winner of her division, thinking she hadn’t done as well as she could. “But it was decent, so I figured ‘I’m good with that.’ I was pleasantly surprised that I did so well,” she said. 

Funk said he’s not surprised in the least at Dorman’s win, saying she is the highest example of professionalism as a teacher and mentor for new drivers and has demonstrated her flexibility as a substitute driver, taking on whatever new challenges she faces on any given day. 

“I’ve never heard her to ever refuse a route,” he said. “I’ve worked with her every day for 14 years. She’s consistent. I can count on her.” 

“When you love what you do, you’re great at it and that’s Dorothy,” added Julia Hutchison, assistant supervisor for field services at Wichita USD 259. “When she works with those newer drivers, she wants to build them up. When you’re around her, she makes you want to be better.”  

Dorman said she sets high expectations for herself, striving to drive a “clean route” every day, meaning that she won’t be surprised by unexpected incidents.  

She said she and her fellow First Student bus drivers play a key role in the education of Wichita USD 259 students and makes it a point to tell each child who gets off her bus in the morning to have a good day at school. 

“That is important to encourage that learning for those students,” she said. 

Dorman was recognized by Kansas State Board of Education members during their October meeting for her first-place win at the international competition. She was introduced by Melissa Ostermeyer, public service executive in the Kansas State Department of Education’s School Bus Safety Unit. Ostermeyer said school bus drivers are often not recognized for their contributions as they are “out of sight, out of mind in the school education setting but the role they play in the lives of their students is nothing short of spectacular.”  

“Dorothy brings out the best in her students, with special education students being her passion,” she said. “Her leadership at First Student in Wichita, as well as mentoring other bus drivers around the state should be the exemplification of every school transportation department and every school bus driver in Kansas.” 

In addition to Dorman, the other four Kansas drivers who competed in the international contest are as follows: 

• Brian Inloes, Auburn-Washburn USD 437, small bus (4th place) 
• Martin Myrtle, First Student (Wichita USD 259), conventional bus 
• Anna Cooper, Auburn-Washburn USD 437, conventional bus 
• Jerry Guerrero, Garden City USD 457, transit bus (4th place)  

This week, Oct. 21-25, is National School Bus Safety Week. Go to https://www.ksde.org/Agency/Fiscal-and-Administrative-Services/School-Finance/School-Bus-Safety for resources and materials from the KSDE School Bus Safety Unit.