New bus driver facility for Hammonton

Kristin Guglietti/THG (above) and Courtesy Photos Above: Transportation Supervisor Toni Mazza (left) and Hammonton Board of Education Vice President Luke Coia (right) stand with grounds and transportation workers Mark Benedetto, Kevin Figueroa and Peyton LeMunyon inside the new facility for school bus drivers.

Kristin Guglietti/THG (above) and Courtesy Photos The Hammonton School District purchased three new vehicles for the maintenance, grounds and transportation departments. The vehicles replaced existing district vehicles that were 16 years old and older, and the new vehicles comes with snow equipment.

HAMMONTON—The Hammonton School District opened a new facility for the bus drivers to meet.

The facility is located inside a bus garage next to the Warren E. Sooy Jr. Elementary School.

Transportation Supervisor Toni Mazza said a group of transportation and grounds people gutted the room, which was filled with bus parts with some of the parts being 50 years old.

Now with a new space, Mazza and her team can use the room for their safety meetings.

Before having a space for their state-mandated meetings, Mazza said they used to have the meetings at Atlantic Investigations or outside her office.

However, when Board Vice President Luke Coia saw the transportation department outside during a meeting earlier this year, he promised to help find them a space.

The transportation department had asked for years for a meeting space, with no movement on the request until this year’s new leadership on the board of education with John Lyons becoming the new board president and Coia as vice president.

Kristin Guglietti/THG (above) and Courtesy Photos Mazza used to hold meetings outside her office.

It took many nights and three Saturdays to remove the parts from the room in the bus garage.

Some of the parts went to scrap while other parts were brought to the mechanic’s office.

Mazza said while cleaning up the room they found artifacts including her timecard from 1998 when she was a second-year bus driver. She ended up driving the school bus for 16 years before becoming the transportation supervisor.

After finding a new facility for the bus drivers, Coia said the bathrooms will be redone next as well as painting the exterior and interior Hammonton Blue Devils’ blue and white.

“Drivers are hard to get… We’re very fortunate to have the transportation department,” Coia said.

The Hammonton School District previously purchased 13 new buses, and Coia said two more buses are being purchased. One of them being a special needs bus and the other being a 54-passenger bus with air conditioning.

Coia added that three new vehicles were purchased for the maintenance, grounds and transportation departments.

The three new vehicles replaced existing district vehicles that were 16 years old and older, and the new vehicles come with snow equipment.