For Tracey Brown-Gysi, what started as a flexible job for a single mom turned into a career spanning over two decades. Brown-Gysi was recently hired as the Community School District's director of transportation. She started in mid-November.    

Brown-Gysi said around 20 years ago, she needed a job that worked around a school schedule. So, she began driving a bus, a flexible job where she could also bring her children.  

“I enjoyed it. I enjoy the driving. I enjoy the kids,” she said. "You're going to have your good days and your bad days, you know? You're not going to please every parent, but you're going to try. You're not going to please every child, but you're going to try.”   

Since then, she has been a bus driver, driving trainer and safety trainer. She was also a dispatcher for First Student in the Augusta office for around 10 years. She said she has worked in the field in New Jersey and Maine, and as close as Damariscotta. Now, she lives in Gardiner and commutes to Boothbay.    

Brown-Gysi said the job is largely about logistics: Managing drivers, maintaining buses, tweaking routes and ensuring smooth times. She also works with the special education program to transport students throughout and outside the region, including to Wiscasset, Chelsea and Freeport. 

For all aspects of her job, safety is key.

“Maintaining safety is my biggest goal,” she said. “It's always been my biggest goal is to make sure that if I see a stop that is seriously unsafe, that I fight to make sure and make it better.”   

Brown-Gysi wants to take a hands-on approach to her job. If a driver brings up concerns, she wants to go there or ride the route with them to see the issue firsthand. She said she is already addressing an issue at a stop one of her drivers brought up.   

But it's also about people. She said she wants a positive experience for both students and drivers. Like in the classroom, disciplinary issues arise on the bus, and Brown-Gysi said she wants to try and work with them to find out what makes the students click to find the right fit for both the good days and the bad.  

“You just find that person for them, especially if it's a long ride. You have a driver that communicates with the student, and you have no issues on the van, (then) it's a good ride for both,” she said. "You try not to cross too many boundaries or get too, too personal, but you also communicate with them and make them enjoy their ride.”   

However, for the most part, she said routes run smoothly. In fact, she said the largest problem for most drivers is just finding a person’s address in a mix of poorly labeled mailboxes or small writing.  

In this next chapter of her career, Brown-Gysi looks forward to tackling these and other challenges. It’s part of a job that gives back what she puts in.   

“Is it an easy job? No, but it's very rewarding,” she said. “When you get to go home at the end of the day and everyone's home safe and sound, it's very rewarding. When you see a smile on a student's face. Because sometimes you're the first person they see in the morning, and (you) could be the last person that they see before they go to bed. So, if you can just smile and you can be courteous to them, maybe that's all that they need.”