MISD transportation prepares for first day of school, major upgrades to buses

by: Madalyn Bierster

Posted: Aug 1, 2023 / 04:56 PM CDT

Updated: Aug 2, 2023 / 05:16 PM CDT

MIDLAND, Texas (KMID/KPEJ) – “For the first couple of weeks, if there’s a student out there we’ll pick them up, we won’t leave anyone out there standing, after a couple of weeks, drivers will start making their roster…we don’t want someone getting on there that’s not supposed to be there,” said MISD Transportation Routing Coordinator Elisa Felix.

Midland ISD continues to work behind the scenes to prepare for the first day with students. Busing is a big part of that job, and quite the responsibility.

Felix has been working for the district for more than 3 decades, she was also recently awarded the honor of Operations Specialist of the Year by the Texas Association for Pupil Transportation.

“It’s a real honor, I was pleasantly surprised,” said Felix.

Felix says she is excited for the first day and that her staff have been prepping all summer long: practicing routes, maintaining the busses, and even upgrading on-board technology.

“Our drivers have to do a pre-trip and now they all have tablets instead of paper or a wand,” said Felix.

Wifi is also available on buses, for students to get work done to or from school each day.Not to mention air conditioning on all buses.

“They do have air conditioning, it’s a lot of work for our mechanics to keep them up, sometimes they go down and we have to put freon in them, but yes all our buses do have AC,” said Felix.

Typically the district uses diesel-run school buses, this year they added several new rigs to the fleet, that are gasoline-run. The district uses software called Route Finder, which can tell them how fast each bus is going and its exact location.

Usually, each driver is assigned to one specific bus so parents can expect a familiar face, but there are exceptions.

“Some of them are helping out with other routes that we don’t have drivers for, so we’ll have a bus that’s maybe doing one and a half routes, so they’re not only doing theirs but maybe part of another one,” said Felix.

Felix said parents need patient when waiting for the bus to show up.

“We have come construction issues, trying to get students to the south of town, with bridges down and trying to figure out the best way for them to go, and not be so late trying to get back in, with the oil field traffic they’re late trying to get back,” said Felix.

As for safety, she recommends parents put some sort of identifier on their child when riding the bus to make sure they get to where they need to go, safely.

“They’ll let us know if they’re parent pickup. Especially for a little guy, it’s good to put their bus number and the name of where they go. If they’re brand new and a little bit and get off the bus, if they’re under that a parent is at the bus stop to pick them up, because we can’t just let them get off the bus and hope they make it home okay.”

Felix said they are always hiring bus drivers and right now they have eight or nine open spots. For anyone interested, you can apply on the district’s website.

Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.