SAN ANTONIO — A school district here was honored for its display of hometown and team pride in a local contest celebrating the city.

San Antonio Independent School District (ISD) took part in the San Antonio Business Journal’s 2018 Fiesta Medals Contest, submitting an entry that was designed by some of its transportation department employees, Nathan Graf, the district’s senior executive director of transportation and vehicle maintenance, told SBF. The entry was a design for a school bus medal that represents team pride.

The transportation department held a contest for employees to submit a medal design for the newspaper's competition, which was held for Fiesta San Antonio, a local celebration held every year in the city.

“Fiesta is a huge annual celebration here in San Antonio — it’s the city’s biggest event since the late 19th century,” Graf said.

Fiesta San Antonio is a 10-day festival held in the city every spring. It was started in 1891 as a way to honor the heroes of the battles of the Alamo and San Jacinto, according to the Texas State Historical Association. Additionally, San Antonio is celebrating its 300-year anniversary during this year’s Fiesta.

For its internal contest, the San Antonio ISD transportation department received about 15 entries, employees voted for the winner, and a medal was created based on the winning entry. Every transportation department employee received one of the medals.   

This was the first year that the San Antonio ISD transportation department participated in the Fiesta medal contest, Graf said.  

“It is amazing to see the pride that our team has had in this process,” he added. “I rode with one of the bus drivers this morning, and at least 30 folks stopped me to say how proud they were.”  

The department's school bus medal was chosen by the San Antonio Business Journal as the first place winner in the government/education category. More than 11,000 votes were cast. San Antonio ISD’s medal received nearly 38% of the votes in that category, Graf said.

The newspaper will feature the top three medals in each of the three categories (the other two categories are business and nonprofits) in its April 13 issue. The winning medals will also be recognized at the Muchos Medals Swap, an event that allows attendees to trade and buy Fiesta medals to benefit local nonprofits, according to the San Antonio Business Journal.