Successful Entrepreneur Sells Business,Now Drives a School Bus

Al Roth of Baldwinsville recently sold his insurance business and embarked on his second act: school bus driver

By Mary Beth Roach

 

For decades, Al Roth had been navigating the financial services and insurance industries. He served as president of The Insurance Place Agency, which had its home office in Fulton.

Now at 65 and with his business sold, Roth is navigating the roads of the Baldwinsville School District, behind the wheel of a school bus.

The kids on his assigned route are eighth and ninth grade students from Durgee Junior High School, but he also transfers student-athletes from Ray Middle School to both Baker High and Durgee for their sports programs.

In his second school year as a driver, he said he loves his job, although he noted that calling it a job “is a stretch” because he enjoys so many different aspects of the work.

He likes to welcome students onto the bus, making a point to address them by name, if he can, wish them a good day and inquire about school or activities they might be doing. In a way, he sees it as a carryover from the three years he worked with a youth group at his church.

“Every kid that gets on the bus, you have an opportunity to see them. That’s the connection that you can get with them,” he said. “It’s interesting to see how much they change once they get to know you.”

Last year, when he had a bus with younger students, he enjoyed swapping jokes and riddles with them.

He said he also finds himself a little reminiscent with this new venture. Getting behind the wheel of the bus, he noted, reminds him of his younger days driving his grandfather’s tractor on their small family farm.

Roth’s day starts early. He punches in at the bus garage about 5:45 a.m. He admitted that he had not been a morning person, so that took some adapting. He wraps up the morning run shortly after 8 a.m. — the time he would usually be going to work when he was in the insurance business. He starts his afternoon run at 1:45 p.m. and finishes by approximately 4:15 p.m.

But that early morning shift has some unexpected advantages, as he learned one morning last winter.

He recalled that as he was preparing to leave for the bus garage, he heard a strange howl. He called 911 and then a few moments later went out to investigate. He found his older neighbor lying on his back in his driveway, having slipped while taking out the garbage. Roth assumed he had been there for a while because he was so cold. An ambulance was dispatched; the neighbor had broken his hip, but he is doing OK now, Roth said.

Roth’s bus runs are approximately 80 miles a day, much of it in more rural parts of the district. But the distance should be nothing for this owner of three Harleys. He and his buddies, he said, have gone off on road trips where they can rack up 2,000 miles.

Roth learned about the need for bus drivers in the Baldwinsville district during the summer of 2024, about the same time he was starting to cut back on his hours at his insurance agency. And his interest was piqued.

“I thought that’s something I could get into. It’s a whole different skill set from the financial services and insurance and property values business. So, I’m going to give it a try,” he said. He appreciated that it was part-time, he’d have summers off, he could earn a little extra income and the benefits, he came to find out, were quite favorable.

He called the district, was interviewed, got the endorsements he needed and took the training.

And while he’s driving the students to and from school, Roth, himself, is driving into an enjoyable “second act.”

As he told his wife, Amanda, one time, “When I stop smiling, I’ll stop.”