LANNON, Wis. — This school year marks the seventh year Brian Balfany has been the principal at Lannon Elementary School.
Being an educator runs in his family, as both his mom and dad are teachers.
He said he explored other avenues, but there was nothing else he wanted to do.
“I wanted to work with students," Balfany said. "I wanted to work with kids. It was my calling, and the second I got into a classroom, I knew this is where I wanted to be.”
He spends a lot of time during his day with the students, whether that’s one-on-one, or in a classroom setting while he’s observing them or their teachers.
“You get to see kids think; you get to see kids create; you get to see kids attempt and fail and learn from their failure, and then ultimately, you get to see them be successful applying skills and strategies that you watched them acquire along the way," Balfany said. "There’s no other feeling like it.”
He has a full plate as a principal on top of his family duties.
Despite that, about a year ago, there was something he noticed his community needed so he decided to step up.
More bus drivers.
“It was really impacting our families in addition to our school and community," Balfany said. "I wanted to see what I could do and I get to drive along now and ride along now with friends like Harper here," he added, acknowledging a young girl riding the bus.
Instead of waiting with students for a bus to come hours after the school day ended, he applied to be a bus driver in 2022.
At first, he admitted, there was a learning curve.
“Honestly when I jumped in, I didn’t even know if I could do it," Balfany said.
But after hours of training he got from the Dairlyland-Hamilton Bus Company, he got his commercial driver's license, and now drives a full busload of students home from school several times a week.
Rick Mudry, the terminal manager at Dairyland-Hamilton Bus Company, said it’s been a big help for them, as they continue deal with a bus driver shortage that was exasperated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are starting to come out of it," Mudry said. "Most of what we’re doing now is continuing to hire for the fill-in drivers, the people who may be sick, day-to-day, or need to take that vacation.”
Balfany didn’t expect to be driving as much as he has, but he likes that he gets the extra time with the students.
“It’s a unique opportunity, and I’m trying to make the best of it, not just for simple transportation purposes, bur for the purposes of our school community and our learning community," Balfany said.
He said he hopes by sharing his story, more people in the community will be interested in helping out, and helping students in their community get safely to and from school and other activities.