What Starts the Educational Process
By SARAH LYNCH
Corey Muirhead was celebrating his twin brother’s bachelor party on the day the world changed.
He had just arrived at the house the party had rented in Scottsdale, Arizona, and stole a moment away in his room to get some work done. It was March 12, one day after the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic and just hours before New York City’s public school system, the largest in the nation, would shut down. Corey oversees 4,000 employees and 2,500 routes at the largest school bus transportation provider in the city, and when he got a call that day from someone high up in the city administration, he assumed it was business as usual.
As the next minutes and hours unfolded, he spoke with about 30 different people on the phone and slowly realized that his industry –– and the livelihoods of the thousands of employees who looked up to him –– hung in the balance.
“We had been anticipating a shutdown, but then when you hear from a decision-maker in the city, ‘We don’t know,’ that’s scary. If they don’t know, then no one’s going to know,” he recalls.
The school bus represents an unmistakable symbol of American education, conjuring memories of bumpy rides, early morning bus stops, and the endless chatter of friends.
As Corey puts it, the school bus starts the educational process.
This mantra emerged as both a driving motivator for the company and a strategic argument for contractors scrambling to secure funding and avoid copious layoffs amid the pandemic. Corey faced two critical problems, each encompassing a myriad of complications: First, how do you keep the school bus industry afloat when students are attending virtual school? And second, how can school buses continue to operate while keeping students safe?
In June, a task force assembled to tackle the latter, with Corey in the lineup. Working around the clock quickly became the new norm. With each hurdle cleared, four new ones came to the forefront. “Regardless of all of my experience with dealing with bureaucracies and government agencies and dealing with other contractors, I certainly wasn't prepared to continue to take the punches in a 12-round bout,” Corey says.
The employment and health benefits of the thousands of employees weighed heavy at the school bus organization, Logan, which Corey oversees. Layoffs inevitably occurred. Corey thought about the drivers who didn’t know when they would have a job again. He thought about the students, particularly those with special needs, who could not get to school without a bus, and whether or not school bus companies would even exist when schools reopened.
“That was particularly hard for him,” Corey’s wife, Cassandra, says. “He didn’t want anyone who works with the company to experience that, to be out of work, to be without health benefits, especially during a pandemic.” Ultimately, Corey made a deal with the unions so that they would continue to cover health insurance –– one hurdle cleared, but many still to go.
Illustration by Andrew Mark
In addition to protecting his own employees at Logan, Corey serves as the point person for over 65 privately owned school bus businesses as the president of the New York School Bus Contractors Association (NYSBCA). The challenges facing each contractor from Michigan to Chicago to New York varied with each unique municipality, but finding ways to protect these small businesses was paramount.
So, Corey created a playbook –– a guide that contractors could use to negotiate and secure the money they needed to survive and formally educate elected officials, school boards and the public about what really goes into providing this service. Corey, a lobbyist, and many colleagues conducted extensive research, picked the brains of attorneys and pored over contractual language.
“This isn't about making a profit anymore. This is about keeping your small business afloat, keeping your employees intact, so that when schools come back, school buses will still be there because kids need to get to school,” Corey says.
At long last, employees returned to Logan as New York prepared to send students back to school, although not at full capacity. Likewise, school buses were reconfigured to stagger fewer students. Mask requirements were instituted. With schools reintroducing in-person instruction and athletics slowly starting to return, the progress made speaks volumes about the policies and procedures implemented in June, Corey says.
“If any association president before him said, ‘Wow, I had a really tough period to go through…,’ it would pale in comparison to what he was facing. This was literally a shutdown of the industry,” Bradley Gerstman –– a lobbyist for the NYSCBA who worked alongside Corey –– says.
“Corey operated in a leadership capacity that I’ve really rarely ever seen.”
Corey has spent his entire career at Logan, starting with an internship at the company as a junior at Marist. He started dating Cassandra in the same year. In 2018, they married. “I’ve never known him in another field, and I think both of us thought maybe this was something he would start out in, but it has just grown into something so much more,” Cassandra shares. “And he really loves what he does. I’m happy he found this thing that he’s passionate about.”
But when Corey speaks about his role during the pandemic, more than passion is evident –– this has become a mission.
“Every day, seven days a week, I was fighting for something. I had a purpose. I think that kept me going no matter what,” Corey explains. “I really felt a part of something bigger than me.”
FOR THE RECORD UNCUT
OBJECT PHOTOGRAPHY
Photography by Bobby Oliver
For this year’s project, we asked our Changemakers to bring items that had meaning to them to the shoot.
“Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People - This isn’t an advertisement for the book, and I loved my Marist education but this book has been the most impactful literature I’ve ever read from both a business and personal perspective. This book taught me business and personal relationships are heavily psychological. Everyone has egos, and most importantly, everyone wants to feel important and heard. I read this book when I was starting my career to understand how to engage with those older than me to earn their respect and thus be an effective negotiator. I felt that at my age, they would not respect me because of my limited experience in the industry and I had not been “tested”. I learned that respect is earned not only by your business acumen, but by your sincerity and genuine interest in your counterpart’s issues/conversations. Many of the books principals are so easily applicable to everyday life that if used correctly will strengthen your business and personal relationships. Business acumen is a nuanced sport. It’s not just you vs. them in a 12 round boxing match. It is not so cut and dry. You have to fundamentally understand someone’s opinion, understand why they have it, and then understand how to make them see your side. Many of us do this in the course of our normal day lives-we just don’t recognize it. This book does an exceptional job of helping you recognize it and ties it all together. I have this book highlighted in my office because I constantly refer back to it. I feel it has made be a better person professionally and personally. I truly feel like my relationships have benefited from me applying the principals I’ve learned from this book.
House of Representatives Official Business Visitor 03/02/2016 - This official visitor pass is near and dear to my heart because it was the first time I went to Washington D.C. to lobby on behalf of the school bus industry. I was representing the National School Transportation Association and we were lobbying against a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration proposed legislation change to increase the vehicular insurance limits of school buses. This change would effectively make insurance unaffordable and force hundreds of small school bus operators across America out of business, coincidentally putting thousands of people out of jobs. The existing insurance limits were alreay adequate, but the increases were being lobbied heavily by the Trial Lawyers Association of America for obvious reasons. I was 25 years old, walking the halls of the Capitol building, the Cannon House Office Building and the Russell Senate Office Building meeting with elected officials and their staffers. I remember taking the underground walkways/trolley to my various meetings with staffers, papers flying all over. We had meetings from 830am to 530pm, 15 minutes apart. The best part is you only get about 10 minutes to meet with these Representatives. You basically have an index card of what your “ask” is, and how (insert name) Representative can help. You need to convey your issue and your industry dynamics at the speed of light, because they have hundreds of meetings a day and their attention span for your particular issue can only be so engaged. Months later, the FMCSA ultimately decided against increasing insurance limits. I had an epiphany when that happened. I felt like I had a direct hand in preserving the school bus industry and apart of this determination. This was also when I realized that there is so much more to the school bus industry than just getting kids to and from school. Be it legislation, procurement or labor relations, I realized that I was good at this job, and I truly liked what I did. I can attribute this day to one of the days where I truly felt I found a purpose.
Bob Seeger Greatest Hits - Bob Seeger is the Rock God. I picked this album because of one specific song titled “Night Moves” and one specific event. This may sound cheesy but I think people have a hard time pinpointing the “exact” moment they were the happiest they have ever been but I don’t. It was my wedding night. My wife and I’s wedding song was Van Morrison’s Into the Mystic. Unbelievable song, but Night Moves resonates with me more. I barely remember the night’s events not because of alcohol consumption, but because everything moved so quickly, from the reception to pictures to speeches to more pictures, to greeting our guests to even more pictures. It truly felt like it was over in the blink of an eye. Reminiscing on the night sometimes I draw a blank, but the only thing I remember vividly moment for moment is dancing to Night Moves on the dance floor with my wife and all our friends and family surrounding us. Maybe it’s because the song is about teenage love reflecting years later from his adult perspective. Maybe it’s because my wife and I met and started dating as teenagers, graduating the same year at Marist but unlike the song, as adults we got married in 2018. I don’t know, maybe the band just played the song so damn well. Fast forward 2 and a half years later, my wife and I have a little Red Fox coming this summer. I still listen to that greatest hits album on Vinyl and on Spotify and I still smile vividly thinking about that moment.