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Celina ISD is testing a new program to hire bus drivers as the district grows.
Under a new referral incentive program, district employees can receive up to $750 for helping CISD find qualified drivers.
The CISD Board of Trustees approved the program for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years at a Sept. 21 meeting.
Sorting out details
To participate in the program, a full-time CISD employee must refer a qualified bus driver candidate, Human Resources Director Mindy Schoen said.
If the district hires the candidate, the referring employee can receive up to $750 paid in two installments: $375 after the bus driver completes 90 days of employment and $375 at the end of the driver’s work year.
The program is designed to help identify job applicants who are committed to CISD, according to Schoen’s presentation.
Employees who are hired based on the referral of an existing CISD staff member tend to work at the district longer, Schoen said.
“The retention for those employees is a lot longer than if we were to bring somebody in just off the street,” she said.
The program includes restrictions on eligibility, such as:
The referring employee cannot be directly involved in the hiring process
The referral must be made before the candidate receives a job offer
Only one referral per candidate
By the numbers
As of September 2026, the district has 41 bus drivers and nine of them are still in the certification process, Schoen said.
Ideally, the district would have 56 bus drivers, she said.
“We would feel great if we had 15 more [bus drivers] come on,” Schoen said.
Zooming out
Other fast-growth Texas school districts like Bryan ISD, Katy ISD, Tomball ISD and Fort Bend ISD have also faced shortages of bus drivers in recent years, according to previous reporting from Community Impact.
Bryan ISD and Tomball ISD both raised the starting pay for bus drivers in a bid to increase recruitment and retention, and Katy ISD and Fort Bend ISD approved millions of dollars in contracts with GoldStar Transit, a third-party school transportation vendor.
In CISD, officials hope the referral incentive program will offer an alternative solution to attract employees.
“Any kind of outside-the-box idea to help get people in the door is great,” Board Vice President Jarratt Calvert said.
