School Bus number 99 sat in the Natrona County bus garage gleaming from a recent cleaning as three drivers worked to make it shiny and sanitized last week.

It's one of the roughly 109 school buses preparing to transport 4,000 kindergarten to 12th graders to and from their neighborhoods and schools today.

While bus drivers don't have lesson plans to write or classrooms to arrange, they are all responsible for their own buses, and spent the past week making sure each was clean and road-worthy.

"All the buses are serviced and when we have drivers who not driving they are washing the buses on the outsides and insides," said Chuck Huber, director of the transportation department for the Natrona County School District. "They are thorough, cleaning the ceilings, floors, walls and bus seats."

So today might not be the only day the buses are as clean as they're going to get.

It's not always easy work either, number 99's new driver Kathy Proud said as she struggled to pull an unknown substance off the back of the bus floor.

She has been a driver for 28 years in Natrona County. Some days as a driver are better than others, she noted.

"You don't know what kind of home life these kids have, you don't know what they came from," she said, pausing to wipe her brow. "But you treat them nicely, give them a smile when they get on the bus and hope to start their day off well."

Some bus drivers have summers off, but most, including 22-year veteran John Coronado, work year round.

"With all of the summer school going it was nonstop all summer," he said. "There were field trips, summer school, a few trips out of town to Thermopolis and out-of-state to Scottsbluff. It was like school was still on."

Coronado drives the special needs bus, and while he said his job can be frustrating - just like anyone's - he loves his work because of the kids.

Though the bus belongs to the school district, there's a feeling of ownership when he drives and cares for the yellow vehicle. When he's not driving kids, he said, he is cleaning.

For some, driving a bus can be akin to a long-haul trucker who manages to make it home every night. Some NCSD bus drivers cover as many as 221 miles each day, bringing students from as far west as Natrona and north to Midwest into Casper and back out again.

Full-time drivers have routes which typically run from 6 a.m. to 8:30 a.m., in addition to field trips, sporting events and inter-school shuttles before they begin again at 2:30 p.m. for the same route in reverse order.

By the time the traditional school year ends, drivers will have logged 1,570,000 miles. With that kind of use, Huber said, the district has six full-time mechanics devoted to making sure the buses and other district vehicles run smooth come rain or shine.

This tailor-made public service does not come cheap. In 2006, the Natrona County School District spent $506,420 on diesel and unleaded fuel, plus tens of thousands more on tires, oil changes and bus parts.

"As buses become more technologically advanced there are a lot more computers and electronic equipment and when one of those things goes it is expensive," Huber said.

Reach Christine Robinson at (307)266-0639 or christine.robinson@casperstartribune.net