UHLAND — Hays CISD has taken the famous “deck the halls” saying even further by transforming a school bus into a real-life version of “The Polar Express.”
Three years ago, the Hays CISD Transportation Department started decorating a bus, which would otherwise be making its way to auction, for the holiday season to spread some joy in the community. For the first two years, the district dressed up the bus as a reindeer, but this time around, the idea for “The Polar Express” came to life.
“I was like, 'We should do Polar Express,' because they still do that thing that — at least I did when I was in elementary school — where you dress up in pajamas and you have hot cocoa and you watch ‘The Polar Express’ at school. So, the kids love talking about it,” explained Hays CISD bus monitor Kylee Ortega.
Hays CISD Director of Transportation Cassandra Behr praised the department members who volunteered to take on the big task, including bus monitors, drivers, mechanics and others.
“[Ortega] kind of took the lead with the team out there in the shop, with some of our drivers and our mechanics, helping kind of just make it really come to life this year with that Polar Express bus. They painted Plasti Dip on it, so we could take it off if we wanted to make it look like a school bus again, making all of the lights on there, the snow machines getting mounted, the front bracket … at the front of the bus to make it look really like a train, the light in the front [and] the smoke stack inside,” she explained. “The music, [Ortega] did a whole playlist, as well, on a CD, so that it was the Polar Express music that they could just play over and over again with the speakers … They did an amazing job. They just really made it come to life this year.”
This was no easy feat to complete, the director said. The volunteers started creating the train lookalike in October, but according to the team, that still felt like not enough time, yet they managed to create the magic that the students look forward to when the bus visits them at all of the elementary schools across Hays CISD’s footprint.
“What our goal is to be able to go to every campus, elementary campus, to visit them with our bus being lit up. And so, because we're at 16 campuses now, we had to start before the Thanksgiving break. I’ve had our goal as, okay, it needs to be 95% done. I mean, they made that goal barely, I think, the morning of as they were getting ready to leave, they're still putting stuff on, getting it ready, testing it out and making sure the smoke stack works and all of that,” Behr said. “Starting in October, there still wasn't enough time, but we learn a lot as we go every year … Because [it’s] our team that's working on it, they're also our drivers, monitors and mechanics, they have their normal job that they have to do every day. So, they were maybe working on it for about an hour and a half to two hours a day in the middle between when their morning route and afternoon route was happening.”
Doing something like this builds a wonderful community, Behr explained. Other than visiting elementary campuses, the Hays CISD Transportation Department was a part of the Budafest parade and Santa rides in Kyle this year. At the Budafest parade, Behr and her team handed out little bells like they did in “The Polar Express,” and, according to the transportation director, there was instant excitement from the kids and adults alike when they would see the bus coming, “You hear them just gasping and just in awe of what it looks like,” she said.
When he was driving in the city of Kyle event, Richard Rodriguez, one of the shop foreman who has been an integral part of bringing the holiday buses to life every year, said that this project is simply magical for the families.
“We probably passed, I don't know how many groups of parents that we saw on the first street. They just kept jumping from street to street, following where the bus was going to be at. I know that once we went to, I want to say, Four Seasons, there was a lady that had her daughters out there. We were at a complete stop. We just decided to turn the snow machines on,” Rodriguez explained. “And then the little kids, I mean, they were all excited to see [some kind of] snow out there. Actually, she actually took a little video recording and posted it on Facebook saying that it was magical for her daughters and they were very excited. It really makes everybody feel good in regards to we are doing this for our community and our kids are actually excited to see this.”
Behr said that doing the holiday-themed bus every year helps bridge that gap between the community and the department.
“We had an amazing team of drivers, monitors and everybody. I think after the first two years of us doing it, they really see how important it is for the community and the excitement that it creates around this time. We like to go out there because transportation can sometimes make people not the happiest. So, we like to just bring this joy and just show like we're here for our community and we want to bring that joy to them,” she explained. “That’s why it was important for me when I started here in the district; I wanted to help start really building that gap between our community and our department.”
Looking ahead to next year’s theme, the Hays CISD Transportation Department is still in the process of figuring out whether it will keep “The Polar Express” or alternate to something different every other year. Discussions are anticipated to begin in January 2025.
“I love that everyone now knows that their input can be heard,” Ortega said. “Everyone's talking about it and coming up with their own little ideas.”
