For decades, pupil transportation professionals – from directors, to drivers, to routers, to mechanics, to trainers, and support staff operate quietly in the background, however, in February we are given the opportunity to publicly recognize these individuals. February marks the annual month-long celebration of Love the Bus, a time to show gratitude towards the dedicated professionals who ensure student safety during their school commutes.
Love the Bus is a month-long celebration of the importance of the yellow school bus, with a particular focus on thanking the professional support staff for safely transporting 25 million children to and from school every day. Love the Bus events are typically held at schools, school bus facilities, and other locations across the country. The events raise awareness and appreciation for the experience of riding the bus to and from school and recognize the diverse set of individuals whose daily efforts make the yellow school bus part of the fabric of American life.
This initiative is a meaningful way to recognize the diverse group of individuals who make the yellow school bus experience possible for students. While we support the amazing services you provide – it’s time to bring forward recognition to our efforts, our industry, and our members. Recognition is a valuable tool in creating positive cultures and in the hiring and retention of employees!
In this issue of School BUSRide, we will highlight member stories from across the county on how their districts are commemorating Love the Bus Month.
Let’s take a look…
•Chesterfield County Public Schools
Submitted by: Tasha A. Drew, Assistant Director of
Pupil Transportation
From left: Calvin Frye (Director), Ron Arena (Area 2 Manager), Amy Ellington (Manager of Safety & Training), Bob Hartman (Field Trip Supervisor), Pamela Jeffer (Area 5 Manager), Jennifer Davis (Area 4 Manager), Tasha A. Drew (Assistant Director), Candance Harris (Area 1 Manager), Jacqueline Roach (Area 3 Manager), and Amber Holt (Area 5 Asst. Manager). Janeane Hoever (Manager of Routing and Technology, not listed).
We will hold a King Cake raffle in all five areas, with an additional drawing for our non-CDL employees (Attendants and Silver Fleet) that transport students. We will host a Valentine’s Day chocolates and cocoa event. We will hold a Dress Yellow Day where we will visit bus loops and give NAPT recognition stickers to all employees who brandish our colors.
The director and I will visit each Area Office and hand deliver personalized thank you notes with a little surprise inside. With our Areas being scattered in different locations across the county, our final event will be an office staff luncheon to give them time to enjoy some work-free social time with their colleagues.
•Chicago Public Schools
Submitted by: Chi Chi Wonuigwe, Director of Transportation
This will be our district’s first official celebration of Love the Bus month and will be our opportunity to have inclusive programming that incorporates all our personnel who make safe transport of our students possible. Our Love the Bus Month celebration entails the following:
• Flyer announcing campaign
• Weekly Kudos and Team Shout Outs
• Aide Appreciation and Acknowledgement
• Driver Appreciation & Acknowledgement
• Operational Staff Appreciation & Acknowledgement
• Video and Photo montage of our team “Doing the Work!”
• CPS Marketing Campaign: Showing a “Day in the Life”
• Pick Your Theme Decoration Contest: Black History Month, Valentine’s Day or Both
• School Bus Themed Spirit Week
Love the Bus has a culmination of meanings for us here at Chicago Public School’s Student Transportation. It serves as a celebration of community founded in respect, consideration and acknowledgement of the impact, value and contributions made by all those who serve while creating a sense of community based in safety and trust for all our students who depend on it for access to the high-quality education that they deserve. We are celebrating positive experiences and passionate dedicated commitment.
• CUSD #303 Saint Charles
Submitted by: April Miller, Transportation Safety Manager
We share the Love the Bus Month materials with elementary schools in our district, each school organizes activities internally. We ask that students fill out the “I love the school bus driver because…” postcards and surprise their bus driver/team with them. We have received positive feedback from the drivers, noting that it gives the driving team a sense of reward. We display the postcards around transportation in February, they can be quite fun to read! We are looking forward to celebrating Love the Bus Month!
• Cypress-Fairbanks ISD Texas
Submitted by: Fernando Zambrano, Assistant Director of Transportation, Human Resources
Cypress-Fairbanks ISD is in the Houston area and is the third largest school district in Texas. Of our 119,000 students, we transport 85,000 students on a daily basis. We have six transportation centers across the district.
To celebrate Love the Bus Month, our district has implemented
the following:
• Superhero Dress-Up Day, as our staff are true heroes out there.
• Popping in to show some love of popcorn.
• Wall featuring student testimonials of how their drivers go above and beyond to get them to school safely.
• Candy and motivational notes in their mailboxes
• Color sheet to elementary campuses
• Go Texan Day/Western wear.
• District wide Yellow Pride Day
At the Jarvis Transportation Center, Love the Bus means knowing and loving that we are the first person the students see in the morning and the last person they see as they go home. We have the opportunity to turn a bad morning into a good one and a rough day in class into a better one going home.
At the Falcon Transportation Center, we want to show our drivers and attendants how important they are to their students, parents, school staff and to us. Being a bus driver is an awesome task and we want to celebrate their professionalism and hard work. They are more than a bus driver.
At the Barker Transportation Center, we want to acknowledge and celebrate The Barker Cavalry during Love the Bus Month. After all, it is their efforts that have made us who we are today, and we want to showcase their contributions to our district.
At the Westgreen Transportation Center, we will acknowledge our employees and their efforts to make Westgreen Transportation Center the best it can be. We also acknowledge the service our employees give to our students and schools each day.
• Garland ISD
Submitted by: Anna Banner, Director of Transportation
We have a team of almost 450 fabulous team members, approximately 300 routes that transport over 15,000 students and we try to celebrate drivers and monitors not only for Love the Bus Month but also something fun for them every month.
For the month of February, we are sending an informational flyer to all our 71 campuses so they can also celebrate all of our drivers and monitors.
We will have a “Nuts about You” bar and plenty of little tokens throughout the month.
• Glendale Elementary School District #40
Submitted by: Doris Bean, Manager of Transportation
This year we are celebrating Love the Bus with a BBQ and treats for the entire department.
We believe that nobody quite understands all that our bus drivers and bus monitors do to keep our students safe on and around the school bus. The task we have each day is a huge responsibility and a necessary service to the residence of our school district.
• Henrico County Pupil Transportation Department
Submitted by: Heather Stevens, Assistant Supervisor, Zone 1 – East
From left: Heather Stevens, Assistant Supervisor (East Zone); Jim Ellis -CDPT, Director of Pupil Transportation; Richard Hurdle, Transportation Supervisor (West Zone); Tonya Smith, Assistant Supervisor (North East Zone)
We are having one of our Annual Inservice Meetings in February for Staff Training and Development and are planning several activities to make our employees feel loved. Our department has an Employee Engagement Committee to plan activities and events throughout the year to celebrate and retain our valuable drivers.
During Love The Bus Month, we want to make sure our drivers and bus assistants feel loved. We will be giving out goodie bags and raffle tickets for gift baskets to our 550+ employees. While we transport precious cargo, we feel it is just as important to show our employees how much they mean to the reliable workings of our organization. We know that during these times of driver shortages we must appreciate and acknowledge our team and the effort they all put in daily to get this huge task completed.
• Hyde Park Central School District
Submitted by: Nicole Arteta, Assistant Supervisor of Transportation
This is our first-time celebrating Love the Bus Month! As a new supervisor to the district, I have introduced this campaign to the transportation office and administrative staff here at Hyde Park and together we will be expressing our gratitude for the hard work and dedication of our amazing transportation team throughout the month of February. To kick off the celebration, we planned a surprise event on February 1st, to introduce Love the Bus. Additional events, throughout the month, include, wear yellow day, individual days for “Thank your” …driver, monitor, mechanics, office staff, ‘We Popping’ appreciate you day (serving popcorn, of course).
Love the Bus Month is a time for our team to reflect on the crucial role we play in ensuring the safety and well-being of our students. It 
symbolizes our commitment to fostering a positive and caring environment within our school community. It gives us the opportunity to show our appreciation to our entire team, not just within this department but throughout our district.
• Jarrell ISD Texas
Submitted by: Shannon Woods, Routing Coordinator
From left: Tommy Tinnell, Driver; Oscar Lopez, Driver; Tammy Mezayek, Driver; Rachel Davis, Monitor; James Sherry, Crossing Guard; Angel Schroeder, Driver; Daniel Fyfe, Lead Mechanic; Shannon Woods, Routing Coordinator; Tatiana Rodriguez, Monitor; Rebecca Barnett, Driver; Juanita Santos, Monitor; Adam Springer, Driver; Nataly Mux, Monitor; Janie Hernandez, Driver; Maria Rodriguez, Driver; Brandie Whitworth, Monitor; Jan Mullen, Monitor; Joshua Bingham, Driver; Shelby Dotson, Driver; Maria Bocanegra, Director of Transportation; Nanette Hughes, Dispatcher; Alexus Cruz, Monitor; Christian Figueroa, Mechanic; Kay Peters, Monitor; Christie Pratt, Driver; Corin Sherry, Crossing Guard; Yaniris Alvarez Corbea, Driver; Ellis James, Monitor; Casey Springer, Admin Assistant; Marisol Soler, Driver; Michael McLaurin, Driver; Jesus Quezada, Lead Driver.
We are celebrating Love the Bus by having a friendly competition of who has the cleanest bus and the reward will be recognition from the district administration by either having them ride the bus with the driver or having the district administration come to transportation. We will also be providing breakfast each week! Along with celebrating “Random Act of Kindness” day on February 15th.
To us, Love the Bus means that you love your job, love your students, take pride in the cleanliness and safety of driving the bus, and love your community.
• Los Fresnos Consolidated ISD
Submitted by: Suzanne M. Ramirez, Director of Transportation
Here at Los Fresnos CISD we have celebrated Love the Bus for more than 10 years. Every February, we fill our buses with hearts to bring attention to the precious cargo that we carry each and every day, the students of Los Fresnos CISD. It is heartwarming for our team and they take great pride in driving our buses loaded with love. The students really enjoy seeing their buses decorated.
Love the Bus in Los Fresnos means love, care, and commitment to safety on our school buses. We take pride in promoting a positive initiative that highlights our students and transportation department. Los Fresnos is a strong community and we foster a culture of family, care and support. Celebrations like Love the Bus contribute to our students safety and awareness.
• Monroe-Woodbury Central School District
Submitted by: Kathleen A. Martin, 19-A Examiner/Trainer
To show our appreciation for our drivers we have created a bulletin board with safety slogans and inspirational messages in each bus window. We have also created a fun quiz contest. Any employee can take a ticket. On each ticket I ask a bus safety related question each week. Every Friday we pick a random ticket with the correct answer to the question and that person wins a prize.
Love the Bus is about inspiring people, caring about our employees and showing appreciation for all we do to keep our students safe and ready to learn each and every day.
• MSAD6 Transportation
Submitted by: Mitzii F. Smith, Assistant Director of Transportation
As assistant director, I have worked as a member of the MSAD6 Transportation Department for 20 years. In that 20-year time, my district has never celebrated Love the Bus month. This is my second year as the Assistant Director, and I wanted to change that! Although we do find ways to recognize and celebrate our drivers throughout the year, I wanted our transportation staff to be part of a larger celebration this year and in years to come. I had an opportunity at both the NAPT Roadshow and the National Conference to hear so many positive things about Love the Bus and what to expect from NAPT in 2024.
We are using many ideas offered in the digital toolbox (Thank you NAPT!) We plan to show our love with certificates, and small gifts of recognition. We have also reached out to our schools and asked them to show the love as well. Our community marquee sign will have messages of thanks/appreciation and we will have daily messages/recognition over our bus radios. We end the month with a large breakfast for our staff and have asked the Superintendent, HR, and Board members to be present and to prepare and serve our drivers.
What does Love the Bus mean to me and my team? It means taking the time to recognize the efforts that go into making a difference every day. In big ways and small, transportation teams all around are the unsung heroes that show up every day without the expectation of praise. They are dedicated, hardworking professionals that deserve all the thanks we can give.
• Oak Hill School
Submitted by: Jeffery Flatt, Fleet Director
This year we are adding “Love the Bus” to honor the bus drivers and the transportation department. We only operate 5 buses and I am working on getting the state here to teach the younger grades, specifically Prek and Kindergarten School Bus Safety.
We usually go bus evacuation drills in October, this year we are did them in February. Our 3rd grade won the best time so they will be able to create Love the Bus posters for our drivers and they will be featured in our photos!
On Feb 21, 2024 we will celebrate Driver Appreciation Day at the school. All the drivers will be recognized at morning assembly…we do this every day after the Pledge of Allegiance. The School Administration will be presenting them with a certificate and a cash surprise. Parents are encouraged to do something for their driver, if they choose!
• Three Rivers Local School District
Submitted by: Justin Hagen-Stein, Director of Transportation
This year, the Three Rivers Local School District transportation directors are taking the time to recognize drivers by handing out bus driver survival kits, bus driver cookies, and stop signs as a token of our appreciation. Some classrooms will also take time from their day to make thank you cards for the drivers from the students.
As a school district, we understand that being a bus driver can be challenging at times. That is why we believe it is important to show appreciation to our drivers. While we acknowledge and recognize them at the beginning and end of the year, we also think it is a good idea to stop halfway through the year to give them the recognition they deserve.
Our transportation department is committed to empowering our students and prioritizing safety at all times. Our staff takes great pride in their work and even participates in school events to showcase our safe fleet to the community. They organize “Touch a Bus” events, where students can learn about what it is like to ride a school bus and all the safety procedures and rules to ride safely.