DeKalb school teacher also driving school bus to address driver shortage

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Exavier Frazier is the Media Administrator at Stone Mill Elementary in DeKalb County. After working for the school district for 22 years, he’s adding a new role to his service: Bus Driver.

His new, extra role is a step toward addressing driver shortages across the county.

Frazier, who says he is an educator first, says the key to being a great teacher is to teach what you know.

“Here’s a book. This book is called ‘Let’s Go For a Drive,’” he told students.

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“Drive and drive! Drive, drive, drive—we’ll go for a drive,” he said to students, reading from the book out loud.

DeKalb County has a shortage of school bus drivers. Officials told Channel 2′s Berndt Petersen they need to hire 150 drivers for the county.

Now, in the early mornings, Frazier is helping fill that gap.

“Now that I had the opportunity, I jumped at it. I couldn’t let it go past me. I just couldn’t,” Frazier said.

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Frazier teaches his students while they’re at school, then jumps back on the bus to take them home in the afternoon.

“There’s a huge need to safely transport students from home to school, and from school to home, while dealing with Atlanta traffic,” Frazier told Channel 2 Action News.

Stone Mill’s Principal, Alethea Mack, said when Frazier first said he wanted to drive, she thought it was a joke. But it’s no laughing matter.

“This year, he has taken on a new task to be our bus driver, and at first we thought he was joking,” Mack said.

To help find drivers, the administration has asked teachers if they’d drive, offering different incentives in their time of need.

“There’s a huge need to safely transport students from home to school, and from school to home, while dealing with Atlanta traffic. You have to know how to maneuver that bus. And you know, it’s pretty easy for me to do,” Frazier said.

Making the adjustment to driving and teaching was easy for the media administrator because he already had a commercial driver’s license. During the summers, when school is out, Frazier drives a semi-truck.

DeKalb school officials said any teacher who takes on the dual role will be fully trained and certified to drive a bus, and they’ll also earn some extra money.

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