Houston’s City Hall is lit yellow through Wednesday in recognition of the hundreds of thousands of student transportation personnel nationwide and especially the efforts of Houston ISD.
Mayor Annise Parker ordered the lighting beginning Friday as part of “Love the Bus” month, an annual celebration of school bus drivers as well as the safety, convenience, educational support and reduction of traffic congestion around school campuses afforded by school bus operations. Love the Bus was developed by the American School Bus Council in 2007.
“We are delighted that Mayor Annise D. Parker is lighting up City Hall in yellow to recognize the HISD transportation department,” said Chester Glaude, the transportation senior manager at Houston ISD in a statement. “I’m so proud of the outstanding job that our transportation team has performed. Safety is always at the forefront of everything we do to ensure that students are transported to and from school unharmed.”
Houston ISD, the seventh largest district in the nation, transports 30,000 students daily via a fleet of 875 school buses that travel 80,000 miles per year across the 301-square-mile district. Houston ISD is also the only school district in the nation listed among Government Fleet Magazine’s “100 Best Fleets” for 2012. Houston ISD was also the only school district to make the list in 2011.
Houston ISD was a finalist for the 2012 NAPT Larson Quality Award that recognizes a district’s transportation department for its safety practices and as a result of an on-site assessment. The 2012 award went to Dysart Unified School District in Surprise, Ariz.
