Texas School District to Name Jr. High School After Beloved Bus Driver

A Texas school district will name a junior high school after a beloved bus driver who has been a fixture in the community for decades.

During an April school board meeting, the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District (LCISD) Board of Trustees voted to name a yet-to-be-built Junior High School in honor of bus driver Ella Banks, the LCISD’s website states.

“Everyone around here loves Ella Banks,” Fulshear School Transportation Facility Manager Stephen Sluder told KTRK. “Her longevity in those 40 years, she has multiple combined back-to-back to-back perfect attendance years.”

Banks said she followed in her mother’s footsteps. 

“My mother was also a bus driver in the district and she enjoyed it, and I said, “We’ll I’ll try to be a bus driver and see how it goes,” said Banks.

She started the job in the Summer of 1982 and has not only provided rides to countless children over the decades, but she has also motivated, educated, and built rapport with them, according to the outlet. 

Her retirement, which started in December, was short-lived as Banks found it boring. She got back on the bus in March and has been working since.

Her dedication and work ethic were recognized by the LCISD Board of Trustees with the naming of the new campus. 

“We couldn’t have asked for a better namesake for our soon-to-be newest junior high!” the district said in a Facebook post.

“I am very emotional about it because this is something I never would have dreamt of,” Banks told KTRK. “Blessed and great that my name will live on forever and ever.”

A spokesperson with the LCISD told KTRK said the district still needs to procure land for the Ella Banks Junior High School’s construction, which will take a few years.