Florence Unified School Superintendent Chris Knutsen, FUSD Governing Board President Roger Biede III and other district leaders recently were hands-on learners as they visited the new FUSD-ADOT test course in Florence to observe a third-party skills test and pre-trip inspection.

At the forefront of this initiative is FUSD Director of Transportation Shannon Weber.

The new training course will allow FUSD to evaluate trainees for road and student readiness upon completion of the training program. Prior to having its own training facility, FUSD, like many other districts in Valley, requested dates with the few testing locations in the area and would have to wait sometimes weeks for a test date.

This new course will allow FUSD  driving staff to practice skills in all bus types with intentional drills and exercises for safest driving practices. Additionally, this new course will help staffing efforts because FUSD will longer have to wait extended periods of time for a driver to become certified.

ADOT will conduct annual observations as well as more frequent observations of the course measurements and surface conditions. The district is also required to submit the test results of its trainees on their road and course tests to their database with appropriate scores for safe driving.

Having a certified course, Florence Unified can also offer to test drivers from other districts since the schedule allows for examiner fees/hourly.

Rita Ann Ezzai Reznick is the director of public relations for the Florence Uniied School District.