As a kid, Jephte Mondesir loved watching “The Magic School Bus,” a popular animated children’s television show featuring an eccentric teacher who took her students on educational adventures via a magic bus.

The ex-New Yorker and 10-year Texan loved watching the teacher, known affectionately as Miss Frizzle, transport her science class to new worlds.

He loved it so much, in fact, he knew he wanted to do the same.

“I wanted to operate that bus in real life,” Mondesir said with a laugh. “I just knew that the school bus was an important part of education. In fact, all the real ones truly are.”

A 22-year veteran bus driver, Mondesir now serves as a response team operator for the Houston Independent School District’s Transportation Services department. He is among a select group of drivers who work with department leaders to solve manpower issues and recruit new drivers.

The Houston Independent School District is celebrating school bus drivers this week as part of School Bus Driver Appreciation Week, which launches Monday, Feb. 8.

For bus drivers, safety has always been a top priority. Nearly a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, that hasn’t changed — but the ways they go about it have.

Armed with assorted cleaning supplies and backpack-style sprayers filled with hospital-quality disinfectant, crews gather every Friday and Saturday to thoroughly disinfects every surface of every bus used that week.

“We make sure everything is safe,” said Tyrick McCoy, a response team operator for Transportation Services and member of the bus sanitization team.

Transportation Services is finalizing bus routes for eligible riders who have indicated to the district they plan to return for in-person learning and preparing to notify parents of assigned routes next week.

School bus service will be limited when in-person instruction resumes on Oct. 19 due to physical distancing and its impact on bus capacity. Under the HISD Communicable Disease Plan, buses will run at half capacity with just 26 students.

To accommodate the reduced capacity, bus service will be limited to special education, homeless, elementary, and specialty school students. Service also may be provided for some students in middle school as well as those who live along high-risk routes if resources are available.

Though most HISD students are starting school virtually, Transportation Services was back on the road on Sept. 8, providing student shuttle service to and from 36 digital learning centers across the district.

Strategically located across the district, digital learning centers provide students without technology access a place to complete their daily virtual lessons during the district’s online-only first six weeks of school.

Students who have been previously identified as needing technology will be assigned to a select center, based on the location of their home school. Once assigned, the home school will provide parents with their student’s bus stop and pick-up and drop-off times.