Superintendents,
please provide a copy of this memo and the attachments to the transportation
managers/directors and request they sign up for Commissioner's Memo
notifications for all future messages.
The Southeastern
States Pupil Transportation Conference (SESPTC) is
a Virginia non-profit corporation created over 67 years ago to host an annual
conference focused on educating student transportation professionals working in
the southeast. The member southeastern states are Alabama, Arkansas,
Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma,
South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. The
conference has been held annually since 1951. Over the last few years
with the support of industry vendors, SESPTC has accumulated funds which the
SESPTC Board of Directors has decided to disburse in the form of student education
scholarships. This year the SESPTC Board has approved the award of one
$2,000 scholarship to a deserving student in each of the 14 southeastern
states. The scholarship funds must be used to cover education expenses at
a post-secondary educational institution and will be paid to the institution in
support of a student’s 2021-2022 school year expenses.
The enclosed
scholarship documents provide additional information about the scholarship,
including parent and student qualifications, the application form, required
supporting documentation, and the selection process to determine deserving
students. To qualify, a parent/guardian family must have a gross taxable
income equal to or less than $80,000 for each of the past three tax
years. A parent/guardian of the student must have been actively employed
in public school transportation for the past three years. A student
qualifies by graduating from a public high school and then attending a
post-secondary educational institution in 2021. The $2,000 scholarship can
be used for any part of the student’s 2021-2022 school year tuition, books, or
fees. To assure that all eligible students have an opportunity to apply
for this scholarship, please help distribute this information to the
transportation staff and high school counselors. Eligible applicants
include any of the following: State of Arkansas public school district
transportation staff: including bus drivers, contracted bus drivers, bus
aides/monitors, bus mechanics, directors of student transportation services,
bus supervisors, bus driver trainers, bus safety inspectors, and any other
public school bus transportation position employed by a public school district,
a state school, or the transportation section of the Arkansas Department of
Education.
Applications must
be post marked no later than April 30, 2021. Applications should be
addressed to:
SESPTC
Scholarship Committee
c/o
Mike Simmons, Public School Program Coordinator
Arkansas Division of Public School Academic Facilities and Transportation
One
Capitol Mall, Suite 4D-200
Little Rock, AR 72201