On a Saturday morning in mid-August, David Bynum is busy at work in his office gearing for the start of the upcoming school year.

After taking over as Mercer Island School District’s new director of transportation and emergency services on July 1, the work seems to grow as the summer days wane.

Duties have included training bus drivers to fill substitute positions. The district is preparing for an emergency lockdown drill on Aug. 20, a first-of-its-kind exercise in partnership with Mercer Island police, fire and city staff. It will simulate a school shooting, and Bynum will serve as the point person. And there is still final route planning for the 200 or so new students coming into Mercer Island kindergarten classes this year.

“There’s a lot of information that gets gathered at this time of year to prepare for the start of the school year,” he said. “Just a lot of sorting and sifting through student files and putting kids in the right place at the right time.”

It’s a lot for anyone to take on, but Bynum maintains a buoyant outlook.

“I’m excited about this job. I really hadn’t expected to ever be in this position when I came here,” he said. “I had the idea of maybe working here for one or two years at the most, and that was 15 years ago. You kind of get hooked. It’s a great place to be with great people, and a great place to work.”

Bynum joined the Mercer Island School District in 2000 and has worn many hats throughout his tenure. Like predecessor Todd Kelsay, Bynum began with MISD as a bus driver. In 2007, he became certified through the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) as a driver instructor, a role in which he would train hundreds of bus drivers. A year later, Bynum added trip coordinator responsibilities to his duty list, arranging bus drivers for all field trips and sports trips throughout the school district. Last year, Bynum also began work as a dispatcher, taking over afternoon dispatch duty.

When Kelsay left to take a position with Lyft last spring, Bynum proved to be a worthy candidate to serve as his replacement.

“There’s a lot I’m finding that I didn’t know and I’m having to learn to do, but I had such a familiarity with the way everything worked in the department and the district that it was kind of a natural fit,” he said.

One of the chief duties Bynum will be taking on this year is route planning for the 2016-17 school year, a scenario in which the district will change bus routes at the elementary level to accommodate the introduction of the fourth school, Northwood Elementary.

“The new elementary school will change everything,” Bynum said, noting that middle school routes won’t change much, but the  elementary routes might be spread out differently and shorter in length.

The district is always looking for good drivers, which Bynum says are typically people who live on Mercer Island, enjoy working with kids, have time to spare and are looking to make a few dollars in the process. He said for him, the best part of the job is simply being around all the different people he gets to work with.

“The director is really involved at the basic level. I’m interacting with all the drivers every day. Every issue, every need, every concern comes to me,” Bynum said. “Being able to enjoy working with the drivers and the kids and parents on a daily basis, that’s really what’s fun about the job. It’s a community and it’s a family. You have your ups and downs, but we all really get along well and work well together. If something happens that’s a little tough or a little challenging, it’s just amazing how people pull together.”