Who's Who: Cynthia Bella

Perched high behind the steering wheel of bus #29, Cynthia Bella, a bus driver for the (BUSD), ferries her charges to and from school, crisscrossing the streets of Berkeley several times a day to see them safely to their destinations. Bella moved to Berkeley in 1985 from southern California where she worked as a welder. Answering a local classified ad, she found herself hired on as a driver for BUSD and hasn’t looked back. As a driver, Bella says, she is one part of a whole system of guardianship. “Everybody cares about the kids," she said. "The people cleaning the school, teaching there, or running it, we all are very caring.” 

The City of Berkeley has offered its bus services to children since 1965, carrying students from diverse neighborhoods to their respective schools.  Available to all of Berkeley’s elementary students who live beyond a one and a half mile walking distance, the buses support Berkeley’s continued commitment to integrated education, the effects of which Bella witnesses firsthand, “watching the kids having their own little community, getting along, and respecting each other.”