Some jobs are trial by fire. Yet for St. Cloud Area School District‘s new Supervisor of Transportation Natalie Ratha, there was no hesitation to seize the opportunity and begin at full speed despite the national headlines about bus driver shortages. Ratha has been driving, operating and managing bus routes since her girls were young, and she couldn’t wait to get started in her new position. She’s even rolled up her sleeves to drive bus routes in the mornings and evenings to assist.
Ratha is a Milwaukee, WI native. She started her career with Milwaukee County Parks and loved serving in the public sector. Moving to Minnesota, however, put her in a different position.
“I intrinsically love serving the public,” explains Ratha. “We ended up in St. Cloud because my husband is a professor at St. Cloud State (SCSU). We moved in 2004.”
Ratha began working for Creative Memories in graphic design. She, like many others, lost her job when Creative Memories closed its doors. With two young children by then, she took notice of a job opening at Spanier Bus Service.
“It mentioned that you can bring your kids along,” remembers Ratha. “So, I had two young girls at the time, and I could bring them along on the bus route. I knew having a CDL, [commercial driver’s license] I would never suffer from the economy again … I knew I’d have job security.”
While driving bus, she also obtained another part-time job as the executive director for Visual Arts Minnesota. The non-profit held high school art shows and statewide competitions at the Paramount Theater, and she learned a lot about the non-profit sector.
At the same time, SCSU had just started a master’s degree in public administration program. She enrolled with an eventual focus on local government. While earning her master’s, she never gave up bus driving.
“I moved into the office [at Spanier] working on routing ,” shares Ratha. “Then moved into an operations manager, and [I] always wanted to get back to the public sector. I’m so happy to have this job.”
Ratha feels that having the contractor/private sector background as well as the non-profit and public sector experience gives her the best perspective in her current role.
“And I really love driving,” says Ratha. “I have my own little ways of connecting with them [students] and keeping the ride safe.”
During this national bus driver shortage, Ratha encourages anyone to try driving bus.
“When I get to schools in the morning, I get out of my seat and face them,” says Ratha. “I tell them to have a great day, and you’ll hear it in return. Everyone does. You’re not expecting middle schoolers to. [But] they all say it right back. Those students know they have another adult who cares about them. I love that. The students are really a part of my passion for this industry.”
When Ratha isn’t configuring bus routes, driving bus, or answering parent concerns and questions, she loves to go to the Twin Cities nearly every weekend with her family to shop for and eat Indian food. She loves to travel and spent six months living in Kazakhstan and India while her husband taught there. The entire family loves to visit state parks. On her own, she loves art and has her own studio. Some of her pieces can be found at the Great River Regional Library in St. Cloud (notice the painting on the drop box). She was also one of the artists who created the fence mural at Seberger Park.
Ratha plans to keep on rolling in her new position to keep the transportation department headed in the right direction.
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