Wednesday, August 4, 2021
Superintendent Michael Green (left) and KWRL Director Shannon Barnett (center) celebrate with Bob Lute (right) on his retirement
Woodland Public Schools would like to recognize Bob Lute, our Shop Supervisor and Head Mechanic for the KWRL transportation cooperative for 42 years, who announced he would retire after the end of the 2020-2021 school year.
Normally, the district recognizes retiring employees at the end-of-year staff luncheon, however Bob let us know later and his dedication to ensuring our students get to and from school for more than four decades deserves recognition.
School districts across Washington State operate on mutual-aid agreements so districts will take care of another district’s school vehicles if they are far from home and experiencing mechanical issues, even if those issues occur after hours or on weekends. “Shop supervisors field calls from buses late at night traveling home from sporting events which need assistance out on the highway,” explained Shannon Barnett, Director of Woodland’s KWRL Cooperative. “Many nights, Bob has been rousted out of bed to help school buses get their students home when they experience mechanical difficulty on the road.”
Bob regularly got up early in the morning and late at night to help the director and assistant director of KWRL when operations experienced unexpected weather events which hampered school transportation operations with treacherous conditions. “Bob has been here as long as the cooperative agreement has been in place,” explained Barnett. “In fact, he was the one who scraped the old district names off the buses and replaced them with the first KWRL logos when the cooperative was formed over 40 years ago.”
His colleagues and supervisors recognize Bob for his outstanding talents and incredible work ethic. “Bob has both the technical and historic knowledge to make him exceptional in his role and he will be dearly missed,” said Barnett.
Congratulations on your retirement, Bob, and thank you for all your years of dedication to helping provide the best possible education for not only Woodland’s students, but also our cooperative partners Kalama, La Center, and Ridgefield!