HOUSTON — The transportation department at Houston Independent School District (HISD) hosted a school bus driver attendance contest during a recent week of state testing for students.

This is the first year that the district's transportation department has held the contest. During the STAAR (State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness) testing week, HISD's four transportation terminals competed for best attendance.

“We had a competition at all four of our locations to try to boost the driver attendance so we can make sure we get the students to and from [school] on time,” said Tesha Foster, HISD’s senior manager for transportation terminal and safety. “The result of that is a pizza party we’re having to celebrate them coming to work, and making sure that they understand how important their role is in the students’ success by getting students on time to the campus.”

District officials said that in the end, all four terminals had "extremely high attendance percentages" during STAAR week. The central terminal had the highest percentage and received a plaque of appreciation.

HISD bus driver Barbara Arceneaux, who refers to her riders as her “babies,” said she was excited and enjoyed the contest.

“This was really fun for the kids, motivating them to come to school to get ready for the STAAR test,” Arceneaux said.

Byron Williams, training support manager for transportation services, added that the contest aimed to "try to get all drivers to come to work and understand the importance of testing. So what we did was challenged them.”

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