Rosalia honors Steve Van Dyke

Friday, March 18, Rosalia School District threw a party to celebrate Steve Van Dyke's retirement after 38 years as transportation supervisor. Van Dyke will continue to act as a volunteer with the Rosalia Fire Department as well as the school here. Mike Day of Rosalia presents a plaque to Van Dyke for his service to the school district.

For the past 40 years, students in the Rosalia School District who ride the bus to and from school have seen a familiar face. Steve Van Dyke, 62, started as a substitute school bus driver in 1976 and then took over as the transportation supervisor in September of 1978.

“I've been driving the school bus since 1976, and I've been the transportation supervisor since 1978, driving the bus, doing the grounds and the maintenance, you name it,” he said. “You get to do lots of things.”

Van Dyke retired this week, with his last official day being Monday.

“It's just time to retire and let some younger kids get in there and get a job,” Van Dyke said. “It was just fabulous. I have no regrets.”

Van Dyke said he has seen and driven many kids over the years and even driven generations of students.

“I've got grandkids and some great-grandkids of some of the original kids I had,” he said.

He said the kids were what made his job fun.

“Kids, that's what the world is all about,” he said. “Raising them, getting them up and going in the world. The main importance in life is kids.”

He said he has a lot of good memories on the bus with the kids.

“You just got to be there to help them and point things out,” Van Dyke said, noting he would sometimes stop the bus to point out a deer or to watch calves being born. “Those are teaching moments right there.”

The teaching moments were not just with the livestock.

“I'd try to help them do their homework as much as possible while I was driving the bus,” he said.

The bus also provided a lot of listening moments.

“You just got to be there to listen,” he said. “There isn't much a five-year-old won't tell you. It's kind of comical.”

Sometimes, it was listening he was needed for, other times it was a hug, he said.

“You don't work at a school if you don't love kids,” Van Dyke said.

He said being a school bus driver gave him many opportunities to travel to places with the students.

“We've gone some very interesting places,” he said. “As far north as Edmonton in Canada … as far south as Disneyland. Science trips were always great. We've seen and done just about everything there is to do in the four-state area.”

He said taking students on field trips took him to places he would not have otherwise gone.

“We've seen and done a lot of things we wouldn't have gotten to do just because we had a group of kids,” Van Dyke said. “It always seemed like we were on the road.”

The Rosalia School hosted a retirement party for Van Dyke about two weeks ago, which he said he enjoyed.

“A lot of my friends were there, and some of the teachers I had in high school,” he said. “We had a great time.”

Van Dyke said he now plans to spend more time with his family and getting projects done. With two children still at home and his wife, Michelle, working at the school as the English/Spanish teacher, he said he will still be around the school. He and his wife have one son who is married and lives in Seattle, and they have two kids at home, a 15-year-old daughter and 4-year-old daughter. He said he also has two grandkids. He said he has “lots of projects lined up” at the family farm between Malden and Rosalia.

“Won't be bored at all,” he said. “I just won't have to hurry so much to do all this on a weekend.”

Van Dyke said the students made a huge poster for his retirement party and signed it for him.

“All the kids, they're all happy,” he said. “Some of them are a little sad to see me go.”

He added that he has confidence in the remaining bus drivers – one of whom he drove to and from school her junior year.

He believes Matt Smith, his successor, “is going to work out well.”

Smith started work March 1.

“I've been working steady since 1972. I just always had a job, so that's a little scary, but I had a great last year here and I'm just happy,” he said. “You don't get rich working for a school district, but you have a good time.”