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ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times

Karen Schoonover teaches Mountain Valley Transportation trainees about driving a bus with special needs students. Listening to her are (from left) Soniel Cherichel, Venant Manirakiza and Dennis Mann.

Driving a school bus has taken Karen Schoonover places: Boston, Philadelphia, New York City and San Francisco, to name a few.

Schoonover is a driver for Mountain Valley Transportation, the private company that buses Roanoke's public schoolchildren -- and she will compete in a national driver safety competition later this month in St. Louis.

"I have been places I probably would have never been if it wasn't for this," she said.

Schoonover finished first in the special needs division at the Virginia Association for Pupil Transportation State School Bus Road-E-O, held June 22 in Chesterfield, to advance to the national competition.

The state contest included a general knowledge written test, a pretrip inspection of the bus, and then loading and securing a wheelchair before driving an obstacle course. Schoonover, of Roanoke County, parallel parked, backed up and drove the passenger side wheels through a maze of tennis balls.

She has placed in the local Road-E-O competition every year since 1992.

Crossing the parking lot on a recent afternoon to the bus (No. 148) Schoonover drives, she noticed something amiss.

"Are those headlights on?" she asked, before hurrying over to the shut the lights off.

Schoonover, who has 27 years of driving experience, can rattle off the names of bus parts, pointing with red fingernails to everything from the air filter to shock absorbers. She is a state-certified trainer.

Budget cuts nixed the local competition this year among Roanoke, Roanoke County and Montgomery County.

"Because she placed last year, she still had the right to go to state," explained Ellen Sullivan, human resources director at Mountain Valley.

Between now and the St. Louis competition later this month, Schoonover said she will be practicing and studying, re-reading the Commercial Drivers License manual and taking sample written tests.

But for Schoonover, the job is all about getting the students to and from school safely.

"I don't think anybody could find a more rewarding job than this," Schoonover said. "It is a lot of work. But if you open your mind and heart, you get as much back as you give."