Mason left the bureau in 2007 and went to work as an executive at a Fortune 500 company, and then retired. But Mason said retirement did not sit well with him.
"I still had a mind and I still had things I was capable of doing," he said.
But if he was going to start a new chapter, he knew it would have to be something really important — a job with a big payout and worthy of his time. The choice was clear: He became a school bus driver.
"When I gave them my resume, I actually got called by a very senior person in the county and he said, 'Just checking, why do you want to be a bus driver?' And I told him," Mason said.
Mason had heard the Chesterfield County Public School District was short 125 drivers. It's part of a national crisis, with more than half of school districts in the U.S. reporting "severe" driver shortages. So Mason stepped up.
"I think this is important work, I do," he said, adding that he believes the work is just as important as what he was doing at the FBI. "I think in our society we need to get next to the idea that there are no unimportant jobs. I mean, what could be more important than the attention we pay to our education system?"
Thanks for "stepping up" and becoming part of giving to our community-based educational system. Every position within the Redding School District is a piece of our puzzle that springs forth the picture of educational joy and accomplishment for our kids. Ernest Adams, University Professor, and game design consultant says, "The puzzle challenges the player to get from the problem to a solution." The puzzle pieces of people that work alongside us are also the solution makers of tomorrow's problems. Watching our kids attempt many of the events at the Ninja course gave them the opportunity to critically think about how to get better at something that might have been a challenge for them. We all attack problems differently but in the end, a group of people working on a solution to a puzzle is always much faster than one person tackling it alone. Thanks again for being one of our puzzle pieces to the magnificent picture of what happens at our schools every day. Certainly, we have issues but I know that we will make it through because of the great people that work here.
"Children astound me with their inquisitive minds. The world is wide and mysterious to them, and as they piece together the puzzle of life, they ask "Why?" ceaselessly."
John Maxwell
Mike Mason Story: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/retired-fbi-employee-becomes-school-bus-driver-amid-shortage/
Redding School District Ninja Event: https://rsd.link/em2yt-become-a-ninja
Enjoy your weekend,
Rob