Every morning at 6:20 am, long before the first bell rings, Julie McCarver is already at the district bus lot, backpack in hand and ready to drive. For more than a decade, she has been one of the steady faces behind Ann Arbor’s yellow school buses — a job that she never planned for, but has come to love.
“I was a stay-at-home mom for 12 years with my girls,” McCarver says. When the economy changed and her kids were older, her husband asked if she could get a job. “I saw a sign for bus drivers and thought: ‘I like to drive.’”
McCarver started driving buses in 2010, after previously working at Toledo Hospital hanging X-rays for radiologists. By 2012, she’d settled into her current route, the same one she’s had ever since. “I was given that route by routing, and at first I thought, oh my God, I don’t want to do this route. It seemed too far out there,” she says. “But it was just so peaceful and the kids were nice. I got to know everyone. So I’ve kept it that long.”
Over the years, she’s seen many kids grow up and graduate. “Over the summer, everybody gets so tall,” she says.
Many of her high school riders, like Thomas Grbic (‘29), have been with her ever since they started school. “On the first day of kindergarten, I got on the bus and I saw who we now know as Ms. Julie. She was really nice,” Grbic says. “That afternoon, I was confused which bus to get on, but then I saw Ms. Julie’s friendly face.”
Over the years, McCarver has collected more than a few stories from behind the wheel. Once, another driver had dropped off a young girl on her route, explaining that she didn’t speak English. “I told him, all my kids speak English,” McCarver says. When she asked the girl what happened, the student answered her in perfect English. “It was hilarious. She’s like: ‘I only speak English to you, not anyone else.’”
Contrary to what some may think, being a bus driver isn’t just about driving. Drivers undergo monthly trainings, maintain commercial licenses, and follow strict safety procedures. “People think, ‘oh, you just pick up kids.’ But it’s serious because you could hit a kid,” she says. “Kids run back to the bus, kids run toward the bus. It’s a huge vehicle, it’s big equipment, and the last thing you ever want to do is have anything bad happen on your watch.”
To McCarver, the toughest part of the job – besides the cruel Michigan winters – is the responsibility. Making sure all of her passengers are safe and accounted for is a role that she takes seriously. Recently, she circled back after a drop-off and found two kids walking down a busy highway road because their parents weren’t there yet. “Things like that keep you on your toes,” she says.
Still, she finds ways to bring joy into her routine. For years, she’s handed out candy canes during the holidays. “Little kids always have their little parties, but high schoolers don’t always have that, and they don’t expect it,” McCarver says. “It’s always funny.”
As the fifth of six siblings, McCarver was always raised to look out for others. “I know things can happen in a blink of an eye. You know, it’s a crazy world out here,” she says. “I just would hope someone would do the same with my kids.”
