PROFILE: Frank W. Cyr
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Father of yellow school bus and authority on rural education
Copyright © 2006 by E. A. KralFor nearly the entire 20th century, educator Frank W. Cyr initiated changes in the quality of education in rural America, believing that all children should have opportunities for a well-rounded education, whether they attend rural or city schools.
The Franklin, Nebraska native became known for organizing the first national conference for developing minimum school bus standards in 1939, after which the states voluntarily adopted many standards, including the now famous orange-yellow color with black lettering of school buses for visibility and safety. He also helped implement federations of small school districts (sometimes called educational service units) as well as the use of technology to improve learning in small schools.
The life-long relationship of Cyr (pronounced "sear") to rural America began with his birth in a sod house on his family's south central Nebraska farm in the Republican River Valley just east of Franklin, a town with a 1900 population of 756 located a few miles from the Kansas border.
For his elementary education, he walked to nearby Rural School District 15, a one-room country school comprised of about 30 pupils enrolled in differing grades and taught by one teacher. Known as Sunny Slope School, which existed from 1873 to 1946, it was situated in Franklin Township just two miles west of the Republican River tributary Lovely Creek, mentioned in author Willa Cather's 1922 novel One of Ours, awarded the Pulitzer Prize a year later.
Frank Cyr graduated from the eighth grade in 1913, according to a District 15 history published in Those Good Old Golden Rural Days, The Rural Schools of Franklin County, Nebraska 1872-1995 (Franklin County Historical Society, 1995). His high school years were spent at the local Franklin Academy, one of six Congregational Church-affiliated academies in Nebraska, participating in college preparatory studies and playing football.
After graduation in 1917, he worked on his parents' farm until fall harvest was completed, then visited relatives on the East Coast, experiencing the many cultural attractions he had read about in the New York City and Boston areas. On his return trip home, he visited a former Academy classmate at Grinnell College in Iowa, which was originally founded by transplanted New Englanders with Congregational and social-reformer backgrounds.
In the fall of 1918, Cyr enrolled at Grinnell College, where he volunteered for Army Officer's Training until the end of World War I, and studied for three years. Then he attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from 1921 to January 1923, earning his bachelor's degree in agriculture. While at UNL, he was president of the Delian Literary Society and member of three other campus organizations, according to the college's 1923 annual.
After taking a teaching position at Winner, South Dakota that spring, he then became a teacher and principal during the 1923-24 school year at Deuel County High School at Chappell, Nebraska, a town with a 1920 population of 1,131 located in the panhandle area just a few miles from the Colorado border. There were 18 graduates in the Class of 1924.
In the summer of 1924, he pursued graduate studies at UNL, then became superintendent of Deuel County High School, reported the August 28, 1924 Chappell Register, serving in that capacity until 1930. During those six years, he broadened the curriculum by adding a music director to work with the primary grades through high school, and by introducing home economics and vocational agriculture, the latter requiring projects such as raising an animal or a plot of crops.
Cyr was also among a delegation of American professional people involved in agriculture who attended in 1926 the first International Country Life Conference held at Brussels, Belgium. Afterwards, the delegation toured rural Europe.
From the summer of 1925 onward, he took graduate coursework at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City, which at the time fostered the "progressive education" theory based on the earlier ideas of the renowned educational philosopher John Dewey.
Originally established in 1887, Teachers College had become affiliated in 1898 with Columbia University while maintaining its legal and financial independence. According to historian Lawrence Cremin, primary author of A History of Teachers College, Columbia University (1954), it had become very influential in professional education until at least the mid-20th century, and had on its faculty not only major educational pioneers but also access to innovative staff members at Columbia University.
Among the more notable, aside from Dewey, were educational psychologist Edward L. Thorndike, who took a scientific approach to problems and solutions; William Kilpatrick, a popularizer of progressive education, the child-centered school, and the project method for all subjects (which Cyr described as "learning by doing"); and George D. Strayer, a co-pioneer of applied research in the field of educational administration.
In the fall of 1929, professor Paul R. Mort of Teachers College visited Cyr at his Chappell, Nebraska school, and offered him a position on the faculty to work on the consolidation of one-room elementary and four-year high schools. Mort was one of Cyr's instructors and advisors, and he was known for developing the first equalization formula for state aid adopted in 1922 by the State of New York and followed by other states in the nation, reported his obituary in the May 13, 1962 New York Times.
In 1930, Frank W. Cyr did join the faculty of Teachers College, and earned his doctorate degree in 1933, with his dissertation Responsibility for Rural School Administration published by the college the same year and reprinted in 1972 by AMC Press. During his career, he became author or co-author of 20 or more books and at least 38 articles (as listed in Education Index), most of which focused on issues involving small rural schools.
Of historical interest is the fact that there were also other notables with Nebraska connections on the faculty during Cyr's tenure from 1930 to 1965. Mentioned by Cremin in his 1954 history was educational psychologist Leta Stetter Hollingworth, who pioneered the field of gifted education. Others included child psychologist Arthur T. Jersild, who researched the emotional development of children and adolescents, and administrator Hollis L. Caswell, who argued against a national standard curriculum for public schools but favored differentiation in teaching methods, and later served from 1954 to 1962 as president of Teachers College.
By the mid-1930s, Cyr became regarded as an authority on rural education. In 1937, upon invitation of the General Education Board, then a unit of the Rockefeller Foundation, he initiated the National Survey of Pupil Transportation to determine the status of pupil transportation at the time and to develop constructive recommendations regarding all aspects of the problem.
As a result of visiting state departments of education and rural schools in about 30 states, Cyr and his research associates found that the majority of states had established uniform standards, but in many cases the standards were set up by "hit and miss methods". There was also lack of agreement among the states concerning standards for school bus construction.
The conflicting standards not only caused confusion and frustration for district and state officials but also made the cost of school buses unnecessarily high without always increasing pupil safety. The differences in standards among the states caused manufacturers to engage in custom-built jobs. For example, one state wanted a front door 30 inches wide, while another state needed a 24-inch door.
Cyr also recollected fifty years later, reported an April 9, 1989 Los Angeles Times article, that "just about every color of paint was used on the vehicles that carried kids to class back in 1939." Moreover, some districts transported pupils in all kinds of vehicles, from wooden boxes atop pickup trucks to large flatbed types.
After learning that various agencies and organizations believed agreement could not be reached--and didn't want to become involved--in the establishment of uniform standards nationwide, Cyr took action. He and his colleagues prepared recommendations, then met with the National Council of Chief State School Officers on February 28, 1939 at Cleveland and held preliminary meetings during the 1939 Annual Convention of the American Association of School Administrators. Support was gained for cooperative development of standards at the first national conference on minimum standards for school buses held April 10-16, 1939 at Teachers College, Columbia University, which Cyr chaired.
Representatives from state departments of education of all 48 states at the time (Alaska and Hawaii became states in 1959), federal agencies, and various manufacturers and specialists attended, and came to an agreement that states voluntarily adopted. Afterwards, the results were published by Frank Cyr, M.C.S. Noble, and Frederick H. Dutcher in the 42-page booklet Minimum Standards for School Buses (International Textbook Company, 1939).
Not only were there specifications for school bus chassis--from axle to bumpers to weight distribution, and for school bus bodies--from aisles to doors to wiring, but also for the uniform color called National School Bus Chrome (a blend of orange-yellow) and the selection of school bus drivers.
According to a July-August 1981 NRTA Journal article, Cyr was quoted as recalling, "We agreed on two overriding purposes: safety and economy. A school bus should be sturdy enough to withstand a collision at 30 miles an hour. There should be a warning light system and the body color must be so distinctive that the vehicle would be instantly visible as a traffic light."
Within two years after the 1939 conference, most states had adopted versions of the standards, and except for the color, many of the original standards have been adjusted and others added over the decades, with compliance by all states since the early 1970s.
Cyr held leadership positions at subsequent national bus conferences held in 1945 and 1948, according to Ernest Farmer's Accent on Safety: A History of the National Conference on School Transportation 1939-85, a 198-page collection of articles and participant rosters made available from the Missouri Safety Center at the University of Central Missouri at Warrensburg. After others held in 1951, 1954, 1959, 1964, and 1970, they have been held every five years from 1980 at the University of Central Missouri.
Three major organizations are among several conference co-sponsors. The National School Transportation Association, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia and founded in 1964, represents private school transportation contractors and manufacturers. The National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation, based in Boise, Idaho and officially established in 1968, represents school industry state directors and suppliers. And the National Association for Pupil Transportation, located in Albany, New York and established in 1974, represents bus drivers and transportation directors nationwide.
The many changes in school bus standards since Frank Cyr organized the first national conference in 1939 are evident by those adopted through the 14th national conference held in 2005 and presented in a 450-page publication titled National School Transportation Specifications & Procedures, 2005 Revised Edition, available from the University of Central Missouri at Warrensburg. Included are nine sections from bus chassis to school bus inspection--along with seven lengthy appendices.
The color requirement states, in part, that "the chassis, including wheels and front bumper, shall be black. Body, cowl, hood and fenders shall be National School Bus Yellow (NSBY). The flat top surface of the hood may be non-reflective black or NSBY."
Currently, the three largest school bus manufacturing companies in the United States are Blue Bird Corporation of Fort&amp Valley, Georgia, Thomas Built Buses of High Point, North Carolina, and International Trucks & Engine Corporation of Warrensville, Illinois. There are several smaller companies, too.
Some school districts purchase school buses and manage their operations, while others contract with transportation companies such as Laidlaw and First Student that provide buses and their operation. School bus drivers are expected to complete a state-approved pre-service training program and subsequent recertification training under state control, and pass state motor vehicle tests to receive licensure.
It is of historical significance that there were more than 130,000 school districts in 1930 in the United States, but just over 13,500 in 2002.
At present, almost half of the nation's public school population uses the yellow school buses. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which requires all new school buses to meet safety standards in addition to those that apply to all other passenger motor vehicles, each year about 450,000 public school buses now transport 23.5 million children to and from school and school-related activities.
It is believed that the adoption of uniform standards nationwide for school buses has not only brought about a safer form of transportation for the nation's children but also aided the consolidation of school districts and their racial integration during the latter half of the 20th century.
And the importance of the yellow school bus to American education is recognized during National School Bus Safety Week held the third week of each October. Originally begun in 1963 by Dick Fischer of California, the tradition is now sponsored by the National Association for Pupil Transportation.
As for Cyr and his career after the landmark 1939 national conference on school bus standards, he continued to expand his influence on rural education and related innovative issues. In Cremin's 1954 history of Teachers College, it was noted that Dean William F. Russell in 1943 "urged the financial strengthening of three on-going research projects at the College," which included Frank Cyr's Program for Improvement of State School Administration.
That same year, as part of the nation's "Good Neighbor Policy" with South America, he was invited by the American Council on Education to be one of the authors of a series of publications about North American schools. The result was his 1943 brochure Rural Education in the United States, which was translated into Portuguese and Spanish, and later German and Italian.
Aside from his continued authorship, he participated numerous times as a consultant and member of various important commissions and conferences, some of them sponsored by The White House, according to his entries over many years in Who's Who in America, including the 1972-73 edition, the last time his entry appeared in that prestigious reference.
Cyr was clearly dedicated to the improvement of rural school buildings and teachers. According to articles in the March 11, 1946, August 16, 1947, and October 2, 1949 New York Times, he studied the small building needs of rural America, urged more training for teachers to be prepared for the diverse demands upon them in rural communities, advocated changing the tendency among many teachers to regard small schools "as a stepping-stone to bigger and better things," and proposed raising salaries of rural teachers to the same level as their urban counterparts.
And after envisioning for many years the creation of a federation for small schools to improve instruction and curriculum without giving up local control, Cyr was encouraged in 1948 while conferring with Winfield Trainor, a district superintendent of Lewis County, New York, who wanted a law passed that would allow two or more local districts to contract together.
That same year the New York State Legislature did indeed pass a law that allowed creation of a Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES). It may or may not have been the nation's first, as over 30 states have passed similar legislation, some of which are called educational service units.
From 1957 to 1961, he was director of the Catskill Area Project for Small School Design to help prepare Teachers College students for rural education. And before his retirement, he had experimented with the use of instruction by telephone, reported an August 2, 1963 New York Times article, "to show that widely separated schools could make use of experts and specialists who ordinarily would not be available to the individual schools."
In 1965, retired educator Frank W. Cyr moved to the small community of Stamford in the Catskills region southwest of Albany. That same year he and former district superintendent Melvin Carpenter initiated through a federal grant the Rural Supplementary Educational Center (RSEC) to establish a television system for the rural schools of the area, which became operational in 1968, reported a February 3, 1976 article in the Oneonta, NY Daily Star. It became one of the departments of the Otsego Northern Catskills BOCES, which presently serves 19 schools in Otsego, Delaware, Greene, and Schoharie Counties.
In March 1976, the BOCES Center at the former Rexmere Hotel in Stamford was renamed the Frank W. Cyr Educational Center because of his local contributions to rural education. Previously, a history of the elegant Rexmere and description of the new technological activities credited to Cyr had been published in an article in The Catskills, Winter 1972-73. And in May 1988, the State University of New York at Oneonta awarded him an honorary doctorate.
In April 1989, he was honored for his contribution to the pupil transportation industry at a luncheon and ceremony at Teachers College, Columbia University in the same room the original 1939 conference was held. And a Frank W. Cyr Scholarship Fund was begun at Teachers College, which to date has not yet reached the minimum endowment principal.
There was coverage of this 50th anniversary celebration by many publications nationwide, including an article in the June/July School Bus Fleet, which stated, in part: "The yellow school bus is truly an American icon."
A year later at Cyr's native Franklin, Nebraska birthplace, a Franklin Academy Historical Marker was dedicated by state authorities on May 4, 1990 at the town's City Park, the site the school had previously occupied from 1881 to 1922. He was one of three of the school's distinguished alumni named in the Marker's inscription.
Presently, the Franklin County Historical Society in Franklin has an exhibit on him, and a collection housed at the Cyr Center in Stamford, New York contains many of his articles, books, writings, and artifacts. The Gottesman Libraries at Teachers College, Columbia University house a Frank Cyr Collection, which contains his books, articles, and other materials, and the Teachers College Historical Timeline includes Cyr's 1939 achievement.
Biographical accounts include obituaries published in the August 4, 1995 New York Times and August 8, 1995 Franklin /NE/ County Chronicle and Columbia University Record, Vol 21, No 1 (September 8, 1995). A recent profile appeared in the September 2-3, 2006 Oneonta, NY Daily Star.
A comprehensive history of Cyr's views on small school education and his autobiography are in a 240-page paperback book he co-authored before his death. Titled Designing Small Schools of the Future Using High Tech Learning Communications, it was published in 1995 by The Institute for Small School Design. It is available from the Catskill Mountains Educational Center, 159 West Main Street in Stamford, New York 12167.
Born in 1900 near Franklin in Franklin County, Nebraska, one of five children of Howard and Nellie Phoenix Cyr, he grew up on the farm of his father, a native of Canada. As stated previously, he attended a one-room country school, then graduated from Franklin Academy in 1917.
Married in August 1930 to Clay Center native Evelyn Fate, who had been a mathematics teacher at Deuel County High School the previous school year, he and his wife raised a daughter and a son. Frank W. Cyr died at age 95 on August 1, 1995 at Stamford, New York, with interment in Stamford Cemetery, located near the foot of Mt. Utsayantha.
For more information, consult "900 Famous Nebraskans" on the Internet at www.nsea.org or www.byjake.com/gagecountymuseum or www.nebpress.com.
