Chris Darling, Executive Director

Chris Darling, IPTA's Executive Director      

Chris Darling has transportation experience at two Iowa School Districts, Waverly-Shell Rock and Fort Dodge.  He was at Waverly-Shell Rock Community School District from 1984-1992, and held the positions of Assistant Transportation Director, Mechanic and Bus Driver.  At the Fort Dodge Community School District from 1992-2012, Chris held the positions of Director of Transportation and Director of Operations for the maintenance, custodial and transportation departments.  

The Fort Dodge Community School District Transportation Department was named one of the Top Programs in the Great Fleets across America in the April/May 1999 edition.  Three years later Fort Dodge was recognized again as one of the Top 10 Maintenance Programs by School Bus Fleet Magazine in the April/May 2002 edition.

Chris has been an Iowa Pupil Transportation Association Board  Member from 2002–2009.  In that time frame he composed articles for the IPTA newsletter, assisted with the planning of the Annual State Transportation Conferences in Des Moines, Iowa.  He has worked with Iowa Department of Education to update IAC Chapter 44 bus specifications. During that time period the IPTA successfully lobbied for Senate House file 2154, signed into law by Governor, Tom Vilsack, on May 15, 2004, which allows school bus drivers to report stop-arm violations based on the license plate number without a description of the Driver.

Chris has also been a member of the State of Iowa Transportation Advisory Committee from 1999-2010. During that time he participated in the drafting of the Iowa Drug and Alcohol Testing Consortium requirements and specifications.  Assisted with the writing of the School Bus Inspection Requirements/Guidelines manual for the State of Iowa bus inspectors and participated with committee teams updating the IAC Chapter 44, bus specifications.

Board Member of the Iowa School Safety Alliance (ISSA) Assist schools in preparing for, mitigating, responding to and recovering from natural and man-made threats and incidents.

Chris retired from the Fort Dodge Community School District in 2012 and then relocated to Urbandale, Iowa.  Chris Darling accepted the position of Executive Director of the Iowa Pupil Transportation Association on October 1, 2015.