ROCHELLE — After a 52-year career with Rochelle Schools, first as a teacher and later on as a bus driver, Sally Sawicki officially retired from the transportation department in early April. 

Sawicki started teaching in 1972 and her first year was spent at the annex building in the old St. Patrick’s Church. She then taught at Central Elementary School for two years before spending the rest of her 34-year teaching career at Tilton Elementary School. She taught fourth grade for all but two years of her career. Her retirement from teaching came in 2005. 

Sawicki started driving school buses while she was teaching, sometime in the late 1980s, because she wanted to be able to take her students on field trips. Having her license led to more driving for Rochelle Schools. 

“There was a crunch on finances in the late 1980s and they were cutting back,” Sawicki said. “I had a pilot's license at the time and my dad had a motorhome. I figured if I could drive those two vehicles, I could drive a school bus. I came up with the idea to drive the bus on field trips so the district would be less likely to say no to them. That way they wouldn't have to pay a driver. I got my license. Field trips were my only plan at the time. And then I was asked to drive as a substitute. They'd bring the bus to Tilton and park it out front and take my car to the bus garage. I'd end my day as a teacher and run out to the bus and drive the route. I've probably driven a bus for 35-40 years. I didn't drive routes all the time.”

Sawicki was a part of early field trips to Chicago and Springfield before they became more normalized. 

“That first trip to Chicago, I had everyone in the district and their brother waiting in the parking lot when the bus came back in,” Sawicki said. “People were worried about how many kids we were going to lose. But it went great. For Springfield being the state capitol, we studied Illinois and it seemed important to do that. And when we went to Chicago, I saw one student light up when she saw the Sears Tower. I loved that. It was an experience that so many kids had never had.”

Upon her retirement from teaching, Sawicki missed being around students. She stayed on with the transportation department, working mostly as a substitute. She only drove a route a few times, and never for a full year with a full-sized bus. Most of her work involved driving small buses or vans for special education or Chana Education Center students. 

Sawicki said the feeling of no longer working for Rochelle Schools in some capacity upon her retirement will be different for her. 

“It's hard for me to step away from,” Sawicki said. “There were some special kids on the routes I did drive. I had one young man who was deaf on my route for a couple of years and I watched him graduate. I had another young lady with special needs and I watched her get a job at Rockford Memorial. It wasn't the same as the classroom. It's a different relationship. You're too busy driving and don't get to interact with them as much as teaching.”

Rochelle Schools Transportation Director Sheila Herrmann thanked Sawicki for her work over the years and said it will be hard to see her retire. Her department has been combating a school bus driver shortage in recent years and people like Sawicki who helped out and filled in meant a lot, Herrmann said. 

“I don't want to see anybody go,” Herrmann said. “But I know the time comes. I couldn't do my job without people like Sally. The dependability of these people that continue to do this every day is huge. Sally is one of them. All I had to do was call her and she'd be here. I can't ask for more than that. Our whole group is dependable. We're a family. Somebody is always available and willing to transport kids. That's how we go about every day. Someone always steps up. We always find a way to get it done.”

Sawicki praised those who work in the bus garage for their willingness to do “whatever it takes” to get every student where they need to be on a daily basis. When asked why she stayed involved with the district for so long, she had a two-word answer: The people. 

“When I started driving, I saw all the extra things the district did to get kids to where they needed to be,” Sawicki said. “That was a real eye opener for me. It was good for me to be able to see it from the bus driver's side and the teacher's side. As a teacher, you fill out a form asking for a bus for a field trip and just assume it'll be there. In the bus garage, you see the scrambling and what it takes to make that happen. I got to see that and share it with other teachers.”