Bus driver creates Navajo Legacy of Excellence

GANADO, Ariz.-At precisely 6:55 each school day morning, Freddie Yazzie puts his bus in gear and cautiously pulls out of the bus yard beside the Ganado Unified School District main campus.

For 26 years, Yazzie has driven school buses for this quiet Navajo community, and in that time, he shaped his role beyond that of a chauffeur for the elementary, middle and high school students on his route.

As Yazzie sees it, he changes lives.

From the outside, his school bus, No. 153, looks similar to any you're likely to see anywhere during the school year: yellow paint, a backdoor emergency exit, sliding...