Adams County schools honor bus driver Carla Wesley, classified staff nominees

Adams County Ohio Valley School District honored Carla Wesley, a bus driver and on-board instructor in the Peebles School Attendance Area, as part of its 2026 Classified Employee of the Year recognition. The district said Wesley has spent 18 years serving students, and described her bus as a “classroom on wheels,” a nod to how much more school transportation does than move children from one stop to another.

The recognition placed Wesley in a broader group of eight outstanding nominees, showing the district’s award is meant to shine a light on the full range of classified employees who keep schools operating every day. ACOVSD says the honor is for outstanding full-time classified staff members who make a real difference in its schools, including teacher aides, cooks, custodians, bus drivers, administrators, secretaries, counselors and other support employees.

That matters in Adams County because transportation is often the first and last school contact for families in Peebles, Seaman, West Union and across the district. A veteran driver like Wesley is not just following a route. She is greeting students, watching for changes in behavior or need, helping keep students settled on the ride, and serving as a familiar adult presence that can make the start and end of the school day more stable for children and parents alike.

The district’s spring messaging tied that work to attendance, saying “every day counts” under its “Strive for 5” effort. ACOVSD said when students have access to care at school, families miss less work, students miss fewer days and learning stays on track. That makes bus drivers, aides and other classified staff part of the district’s public health and family-support system as much as its operations team.

The district asked families to submit nominations for the 2025/2026 award by the end of the day on February 20, 2026. Among the people recognized as nominees were Angela Dunn, Dawn Wallace, Melissa Baker and Braydan Shelton, alongside Wesley and other classified employees honored by the district.

The celebration also underscored a staffing pressure schools know well. In February 2025, the transportation department said Wesley’s route had to be doubled because no substitute driver was available. That kind of gap shows how dependent school service can be on experienced transportation workers, and why retaining them matters for daily operations, student safety and reliable attendance in Adams County schools.