Bus Route History

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Olympia School District Bus Route History for former bus drivers Gary Shafer and Jimmy W. Wall

This Web page has been created to share with parents a detailed account of bus routes driven by two former Olympia School District bus drivers: Gary Shafer and Jimmy W. Wall. The attached links provide the driving history of these two former employees, based on a review of district payroll and other records. While we have done our best to be as accurate as possible, these records date back many years and may not be completely accurate.

Background

Gary Shafer was tried and convicted in 2011 of child molestation. Jimmy Wall was arrested on May 6, 2016, based on allegations of crimes against a child during the 2007-08 school year. On December 28, 2018, Wall pleaded guilty to lesser charges of two counts of third-degree assault of a child. Thurston County Superior Court documents as of January 3, 2019, do not give specifics about the charges but do indicate they are non-sex offenses. Documents also indicate that Wall was sentenced to eight months in jail and was given credit for previous time served so will serve no additional jail time. Olympia School District has never received any other reports that Wall engaged in any type of abuse of other district students.

Some parents have requested a detailed accounting of the bus routes that the two former employees drove during their employment with the district. This Web page includes links to a page for each school year in which these individuals were employed, and each year details the day-by-day bus routes that each individual was paid to drive.

Explanatory Notes

The following notes are necessary to help readers interpret the driving history.

First, new drivers are typically substitute drivers. They do not have enough seniority to bid on a specific route, so they drive the routes of more senior drivers when the senior drivers are out ill, on vacation, or driving students on field trips. Therefore, in the early career of each of these individuals, you will note day-to-day changes in the routes they drove.

Second, where a route is identified as Route 13: Olympia HS, Washington MS and Madison ES, readers should understand that there are multiple routes serving each of these schools. Even if your child attended Washington or Madison, for example, your child may not have been on the bus driven by Mr. Shafer or Mr. Wall. To determine if your child was on a bus with one of these individuals, you would need to know your child’s bus route number. If you do not know that number, we must do individual research. Please email us at [email protected] and we will be happy to do this research. Please provide your full name, names of your children who rode the bus, and years that you would like us to research. This research takes time and considerable effort. Please know we will respond as quickly as possible.

Third, both drivers may have ridden along with other drivers at some point for the purpose of helping with student management or to learn a route. When reviewing driver route history(ies), parents should know that there is no history in these charts for these unpaid ride-alongs (historically Olympia School District and many other school districts have permitted ride-alongs due to the improved student supervision and ability for the driver to focus on driving. Only background-checked current employees were permitted to ride along.) Note: Currently, Olympia School District requires that ride-alongs be approved by the supervisor and be related to the purpose of helping student management or learning a route. The ride-along driver must obtain permission for the ride-along from the supervisor, who documents the ride-along in a route book. Olympia School District continues to pay bus monitors to essentially provide the same function as a ride-along driver, when fragile students are on board.



2004-05 School Year

 

2005-06 School Year

 

2006-07 School Year

 

2007-08 School Year

 

2008-09 School Year

 

2009-10 School Year

 

2010-11 School Year

 

2011-12 School Year

 

2012-13 School Year

 

2013-14 School Year

 

2014-15 School Year

 

2015-16 School Year