Bus Driver Appreciation Week
(CEDAR HILL, TEXAS) Cedar Hill citizen Monica Hignojos said there’s something really exceptional about driving scholars to and from Cedar Hill High School and Bessie Coleman Middle School every day.
“You start treating them like they’re your own kids,” Hignojos said. “You get used to them on a daily basis. You’re the first person they see in the morning and the last person they see before they get home. Sometimes, they confide in you, and you end up helping them out.”
Hignojos, fellow Cedar Hill citizen Theodore Allen and the district’s bus drivers are being recognized as part of Bus Driver Appreciation Week this week.
Hignojos, who grew up in Oak Cliff, became a bus driver in 2008 and worked for a few districts in the Metroplex before joining CHISD last September. She said CHISD’s professionalism and care about its drivers eclipses all of her previous jobs in other districts.
“It never dawned on me that I would drive a bus,” Hignojos said. “As a female, it was a big accomplishment to become a bus driver.”
Hignojos said she approaches driving from a parent’s point of view and that driving a bus has made her a safer driver all-around.
“I drive the bus even better than I drive my car,” Hignojos said.
In her free time, Hignojos enjoys creating shirts for herself and family members with a Cricket Printer.
CHISD Bus Driver Theodore Allen
Allen is a former DART Driver who started driving CHISD scholars nine years ago. He drives routes to and from Collegiate High School and Permenter Middle School.
“The children are well-mannered, and sometimes, they have to be reminded of things,” Allen said.
Allen is also the Pastor of Liberty Ministries in Lancaster and an occasional musician (Saxophone).
“I love people and doing what God calls me to do,” Allen said.
When Allen was a sophomore at Wilmer Hutchins High School in the early 1980s, he drew the challenging assignment of guard then-senior Anthony “Spud” Webb in basketball practice. Webb went on to play in the NBA for more than a dozen years. He is best known for winning the 1986 NBA Dunk Contest in Dallas.
“It was a big deal that he was 5-foot-6 and could dunk in high school,” Allen said.
