Districts pitch in to help get kids to school

Those weekend storms did more than damage cars and bring down trees, they almost forced schools to close in one local district

The Transportation Director came in on Sunday because of the damage at her house, When she got there she says she was shocked at what the weather did to her buses but thanks to a couple of other districts, kids made it to school on time Monday morning.

"I live about five min away from here and received personal damage on my home and vehicle and I woke up at 2 a.m. and thought if we got this kind of damage on my house and vehicles I need to check at the facility," said Rhonda Davis, Transportation Director for Lake Travis ISD.

When Davis showed up to check on the school buses, she found broken tail lights and busted mirrors scattered on the ground

"We do not have covered parking so we are in an open area so if something happens it would be difficult for is to try to prevent that kind of hail storm," she explained.

That hail storm left 36 of the buses out of service for Monday's run -

"The majority of the damage is to safety features tail lights signals, mast arms, side mirrors, those are significant for us but without those being operable we cannot put these buses on the road," said Marco Alvarado, Director of Communications for Lake Travis ISD.

But that wasn't going to stop the district from finding buses to get their kids to school on time

"Together with our transportation staff here they started calling area superintendents and started asking if we could borrow some of their school buses," Alvarado said.

Seven districts loaned Lake Travis 39 buses

"Because they we are all STAAR testing and there aren't any other field trips or other events they had a few other buses then they would normally have so if anything it's good timing," Alvarado explained.

"Every bus has different switches and panels and lighting so we had to come in a little early to get acclimated to the new buses," said bus driver, Kathleen Baker.

While Baker can't wait to get her bus back, she is grateful for the outpouring of support

"I thought it was absolutely amazing that they would do that," she said.

"My heart was full yesterday they went above and beyond to show us how much they care too about other students and other districts," Davis said.

Lake Travis ISD will work into the night to repair their buses. They do expect to have some loaners tomorrow and hope to have their entire fleet back up and running by Wednesday at the latest. .

There is no word on the total cost of damage to the buses