The wheels of the bus go round the world and Aurora in this unique APS program

Jingli Mao came to Aurora from China and has elevated school bus driving to an art form.

He had no idea that would be the case when he moved to the United States from Beijing in 2016. Mao is an accomplished economics professor at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing.

After years of teaching there, he left China having authored endless papers, focusing on a variety of topics, including children’s education, procurement management and the development of creativity.

The embodiment of enthusiasm for learning, helping and sharing, Mao Mao, his preferred pen and academic name, is not a man of few words nor ideas.

Before leaving China, he wrote a 2-million-word book, he said.

These days, Mao lives in Aurora with his family and drives a school bus for Aurora Public Schools, every weekday morning and every weekday afternoon. He picks up about 40 or so kids every day across Aurora and delivers them to school. He knows the students’ names. He knows their moods, their good days and bad days. He knows their bus buddies and their stresses.

“I love to learn. Learning is life,” he said one day when he came into the Sentinel newsroom a few weeks ago, intent on making me understand how amazing the APS school-bus-driver story was.

He was right.

His Mandarin Chinese language and Beijing inflection contrasts sharply not only with APS students who speak English as their first language, but the thousands of Aurora students who speak neither English nor Mandarin at home.

Aurora is the most ethnically and culturally diverse city in Colorado, and APS illustrates that by teaching kids who speak any of about 130 different languages in their homes, and English at school. 

It’s a school district that doesn’t just manage extraordinary diversity, it embraces it and capitalizes on it.

Last year, the school district recruited about 10 school-bus drivers who came from just about as many countries and speak about a dozen different languages, according to APS Transportation Director Janet Ulrich.

The recruits mostly speak Spanish, but other languages, too. The would-be bus drivers are tested, vetted, and undergo background checks before they meet with a trainer. There, they learn about the 58-steps needed to use bus air-brakes and what to do if a student appears to be in a crisis.

This is not easy stuff.

For months, this small group of non-native-English speaking recruits were immersed in a unique world that only school bus drivers are privy to, and even aware of.

Does your jaw tighten a little at the thought of parallel parking your Jeep Wagoneer on a busy street while passers by watch you make dozens of turns and jerky movements to squeeze in — cockeyed? Try slipping behind the wheel of a 45-foot-long, 8-foot-wide wheel-bound blimp filled with dozens of kids making that special cacophony that only a busload of kids can make.

Now park that baby against a curb you can’t even begin to see.

In the beginning, Mao says, it was the most challenging thing he’s ever learned. 

He credits the patience and wisdom of his APS school bus driver instructor Alice Lepine for guiding, goading and getting Mao and his fellow recruits to pass Colorado Commercial Driver’s License test, and eventually qualify as APS school bus drivers.

“It was a day of miracles,” Mao said in a long, professorial essay he wrote about his experience. “Because 9 people come from 7 different countries and speak 7 different native languages. In particular, there are a few people who have poor American English listening and no experience of driving a large vehicle, but they can master driving skills in 3 months and can reach a necessary English listening level.”

More than enamored with the process he, his fellow recruits and APS trainers went through, he was riveted by the science behind driving a bus, and the philosophy of learning and being a part of a community focused on helping kids achieve their dreams, even dreams they’ve yet to have. 

At a meeting with Mao, local translator Yanmin Huang and several transportation department officials who oversee the unique recruitment program, Mao pulled out a stack of diagrams illustrating the science behind parallel parking a school bus, or stopping one in the snow.

In his essay, he talks about the nearly overwhelming tasks of watching traffic, speed, house addresses, kids in the mirror and then going through the sequences of first the yellow flashing signs and then the red ones and the side sign and the oncoming traffic and narrow streets filled with cars.

Alice and a fellow trainer, Tyson, taught Mao and fellow recruits to be patient and persistent with themselves.

They got this, they were told. And they did.

“First off, we do many videos on how to handle certain situations in training,” Lepine said. “I also go over the facts about certain situations that you might come across with children and how to handle it. But we have a three-step thing on consequences and discipline and stuff.

“I really just explained to them that if you don’t have patience, compassion and empathy, then you’re in the wrong position.”

These nine recruits found out not only that they were in the “right” business, but that the job of being a chauffeur, ally, comedian, therapist and only adult in the room is hard, but rewarding.

Months later. Mao rolls through traffic to and from schools and neighborhoods, not only cognizant of his prized cargo, but that he’s a part of the school community, rather than just someone who delivers it.

The kids who are nervous or outright scared? Just the right smile sets them at ease, or maybe a pat on the hand and an easy “good morning.”

Sometimes, it’s an ancient Chinese story about weather gods or a parable about gritting your teeth and toughing it out that keeps the kids engaged with him.

He’s also learned the valuable skill of waving hand signals that all school bus drivers must know to tell that one overly enthusiastic kid to tone it down.

But mostly, Mao says he’s learned to appreciate what he says is a very special APS community of teachers, bus drivers and school personnel who take the time to invest in everyone and every kid.

It’s a philosophy, he says, that led to success for him as a skilled bus driver and that he knows will lead to educational success for kids.

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