Beloved Vashon bus driver retires after 35 years

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, May 13, 2026

For more than three decades, Vashon Island School District bus driver Martha Hills was a familiar, welcoming presence for island students, greeting them each day with a warm smile as she drove them to and from school.

But when students returned to class after spring break, Martha stayed behind, retiring after more than 35 years.

For Martha, the job was about creating relationships with students and their families.

“I treat them as my own children,” Martha said, seated on a couch in the break room of the bus barn at Vashon High School. ”It’s more than just driving a school bus.”

As a kid, Martha spent time in the back of her own mother’s bus or hanging around the break room where drivers often convene. Later, Martha’s sister Donna would also take up the profession of driving for the district.

Driving for the Vashon Island School District has become a family affair, Martha said.

Around town, Martha said she often runs into islanders who reintroduce themselves as former riders, even years after graduating. She’s been invited to countless graduations and birthday celebrations — many for students she once drove from preschool all the way through high school.

Hills’ coworkers and daughter Haley Hills tease her, she said, calling her a local celebrity.

“Literally my whole life, people have been like, ‘Oh my god, you’re Martha’s daughter? She’s my favorite bus driver ever,” her daughter, Haley Hills, said, sitting across from her mom in the break room. “I’ve heard that since I was little.”

After hearing of her retirement, Haley said countless families wrote in messages about the steady but lasting impact something as simple as a warm, smiling face had each morning at pick-up and each afternoon at drop-off.

Since her retirement, many islanders wrote in their letters to Martha, thanking her for her decades of service as a driver.

Some reflected on the ease Martha’s presence brought them, knowing that something often daunting for kids — like stepping onto a big yellow bus on the first day of Kindergarten — could be approached with care.

“There is a saying that a child will remember their entire school day based on the last five minutes of that day,” one islander wrote in a letter to Martha. “I always felt so comforted knowing that my boys spent those important last five minutes riding on Martha’s bus.”

Martha started out as a substitute bus driver at just 23 years old, with her 1-year-old baby, Haley, at home. Deciding to take the job initially took some convincing from her mother, Martha said.

“It was intimidating because I was so young, and the high school kids were only a few years younger than me,” Martha said.

But soon after being assigned her own route, she found her footing and quickly fell into the rhythm of the job — building community with students and finding ways to make their days a little brighter.

“She was a fabulous bus driver, and was always warm and welcoming to everybody,” Char Phillips said, the athletic secretary for Vashon High School, who also drives for school sport trips.

Over the years, Martha said she has driven every route across the island, serving elementary through high school students. Mostly, Martha said she has served the school district’s route dedicated to disabled students or those with an individualized education program (IEP).

“Being kind of the first contact from an adult for most kids every day, she was just remarkable and very consistent in the way that she interacted with students,” McMurray Middle School Principal Gregory Allison said. “She deserves to be celebrated and honored.”

Back when drivers were still allowed to hand out snacks, Martha remembers passing out candy canes, donuts and other treats for the holidays, Valentine’s Day or just because it was Friday.

“I’d give the kids a treat when they’d get off the bus and let the teachers deal with the sugar,” she said with a laugh.

In another letter, former rider Janelle Britz remembered an April Fools’ Day prank where Martha — with a serious look on her face — walked to the back of the bus with two “pink slips” in hand. When turned over, though, the slips said “Happy April Fools.”

In another favorite memory from grade school, Britz said Martha held an end-of-year party on the bus for students, complete with sodas and popsicles.

“She went above and beyond to make every student feel seen,” Britz wrote.

In the hours between pick-up and drop-off, Martha also worked as a state-certified school bus instructor for more than 20 years, training new drivers.

As any school bus driver will tell you, Martha said, the job requires more than just pushing on the gas — and those at the wheel are often doing several things simultaneously as they manage a bus full of sometimes rowdy kids while navigating the road.

CPR training, knowledge of how to evacuate a bus, respond to all kinds of medical emergencies and manage dozens of students while operating a large vehicle: These are all part of the job — and things Martha helps train fellow drivers on.

Over the years, she’s developed some tricks — like assigned seating — to keep students in order.

Martha said she also works closely with parents and students to come up with a personalized plan when necessary to keep things running smoothly, keeping things more collaborative rather than disciplinary.

“I think people know you as being more playful around hard situations,” Haley said to Martha.

In the 35 years since she began driving students, she said she’s seen them change. Cell phones and the internet shook things up, but the biggest thing she’s observed is how rising academic pressures have shaped student life.

”I think there are more consequences, more expectations,” Martha said.

Entering retirement, Martha said she’s ready to spend as much time as she can with her kids and grandchildren — whom she was able to drive on her bus over the past three decades. But it’s the island’s kids she’ll miss most.