While Melanie Restivo grew up in Freeman Spur, and her children went to school in Herrin, she proudly admits that she’d recommend the Benton Grade School district time and time again. Mel, or ‘Miss Mel,’ to her students, works as the Bus Coordinator between Durham School Services and the Benton Grade School District. “I actually love the school district. I love the people that I work with. These people here in the school, I give them my whole regards,” says Mel with a proud smile.

Mel shares that before accepting a position for Durham School Services, she spent twenty-plus years behind a desk, handling accounting and payroll at a car dealership. She loved her job, but she also averaged between fifty and sixty hours per week. After recovering from a battle with cancer and realizing she no longer had the stamina for long hours, she embraced a new opportunity with Durham School Services.

Luckily, several friends drove buses and encouraged her to join them. She accepted a position as a route driver and quickly rose through the ranks to manage the district. She pridefully admits that she’s driven every route in the district, learning most of the roads in Benton and the surrounding area in the process.

As a working manager with a Class B driver’s license, she oversees transportation, ensuring safety and efficiency for students with special needs. She oversees the district’s transportation while logging between 120-150 miles per day, transporting the district’s students in a mid-sized bus with thirty-six children. She grins when I compare her role to a player-coach, admitting that the paperwork begins only after the driving ends. As most of her drivers clock out for the day, she still must manage route and driver schedules, coordinate third-party safety training schedules, and submit driver payroll.

While some would consider administrative tasks a burden, Mel considers managing the safety and welfare of Benton’s youth a responsibility and a gift. “Our school district may not have the newest buses, but we have the newest equipment, including driver cams, to prevent speeding past our stop arms,” shares Mel.

She adds, “We go for training every quarter. We have to go through an extensive class. Durham is really big on hands-on training. There’s a higher level of scrutiny than most other districts.”

Mel says she’s always loved to drive, a passion she shares with her father, a truck driver of over forty years. Mel shares that she’s been married for over thirty years and that she and her husband raised two daughters and a son, who is is autistic. “With special needs children, you have to have patience and understanding. You have to adapt. You have to accommodate. And you got to be patient. And I learned patience by having cancer.”

Mel’s life has been a unique set of circumstances that helped create an ideal candidate for the bus coordinator position. From being the daughter of a truck driver to her experience at the car dealership to the lessons she’s learned fighting cancer and raising a son who is autistic, as well as two daughters, it’s hard to imagine a more individual more uniquely-suited for the job. As we concluded our conversation, Mel made a statement that sounded simple. But as I drive home, logging my own miles, I look in the rearview mirror, noticing a pair of car seats. While they’re empty now, two rambunctious boys occupy them each morning as I drive them to school. It’s at that moment that I realize the true depth of her words.

“As a parent, I want the parents to know we’re there for the child and the family as a whole. We provide a sense of safety. They can get on the bus and feel safe,” concludes Mel. And as a parent, I realize that’s the greatest gift anyone can provide me, and I’m grateful for all the Miss Mels in the world.