A message from NAPT President Stephen A. Simmons, III
In: Association Updates
NAPT Has Some Exciting News to Share! A new NAPT Publication: School BUSRide, Dr. Linda F. Bluth, and NAPT ACTS!
Last March, it was hard to imagine the global pandemic would have such an incredible impact. Now, I'm not sure anything has ever hit our nation so hard so fast and with such profound consequences. The number of changes we've had to make in our personal and professional lives over the last 6 months has been amazing, hasn't it?
Through it all your NAPT team has been working hard to help you think through the challenges and make necessary adjustments. Today, I'm pleased to let you know about several new initiatives we're launching that are intended to help you stay ahead of the curve in this unusual new world.
New NAPT publication. The NAPT and Foundation Boards believe the challenges we face can best be served by better communications tailored specifically to the needs of our members. So, we are collaborating with a respected national publisher to produce our own magazine. We're calling it SchoolBUSRide©.
In addition to providing you with current news and information, interviews, and in-depth coverage of federal and state activities impacting us, we are committed to diving deeper to get the story behind the story—why things are happening, what it means for your yellow bus operations, and how you can influence it.
Stay tuned for more details on this exciting new venture!
Dr. Linda F. Bluth joins the NAPT team. I'm really pleased and proud to announce that industry icon Linda Bluth is joining the NAPT staff as our Special Needs Transportation Consultant. Linda's qualifications are unmatched: she is not only a former President of NAPT (she's also in our Hall of Fame), she is a certified school administrator (superintendent, elementary & middle principal, K-12 special education) and a certified supervisor of school transportation. She is and has been for a long time the "go to" national expert on the transportation of students with disabilities and their related special needs.
Among her initial assignments will be updating the NAPT manual, "Transporting Children with Disabilities, 5th Edition," writing articles for NAPT publications, creating new training, presenting webinars, collaborating with state affiliates and associations, and providing technical assistance to NAPT members.
"I am excited to continue my passion, work and interest in the transportation for students with disabilities and special needs", Linda said in announcing her exclusive affiliation with NAPT. "I am really looking forward to helping the association continue to help its members."
Expect to see Linda online soon. She's looking forward to working with you.
Finally, soon we will be launching NAPT ACTS! This dynamic new web portal will offer live and on-demand content created to help you manage the current and future challenges of K-12 transportation.
Over 40 weeks, we'll offer more than 40 different specially created keynotes, panel discussions and workshops featuring federal and state policymakers, safety and health professionals, education leaders, union officials, human resource experts and much more, all delivered with the flexibility you need in the new professional environment in which we are operating.
In short, a new NAPT publication to provide you with more information and a service-oriented voice; the talents of Linda Bluth to help you think through problems and create solutions; and NAPT ACTS!, as "information central," will provide you with unique, resources custom designed to meet your needs.
I hope you're as excited as I am about these new member services. I look forward to hearing from you as we launch each one in the next few weeks. Thank you for your time and attention. Have a great day!
Stephen A. Simmons III
NAPT President 2019-2021