TASB Risk Management Fund Excellence Awards: Districts Honored for Efforts To Reduce Risk

In honor of their commitment to developing innovative and effective solutions to risk management challenges, the TASB Risk Management Fund has named five member school districts as recipients of the prestigious Excellence Award for 2026.

From reducing injuries to improving school safety to addressing transportation issues, these Excellence Award winners reflect Fund members’ exemplary efforts to find solutions to risk challenges and protect valuable resources. The 2026 recipients will be honored for their commitment to innovation and risk management excellence during the Fund Members’ Conference April 26-28. Each winner receives $5,000 to apply toward risk management efforts.

Here are the Excellence Award winners for 2026. Texas Lone Star talked to each of the winners about their initiatives. Their comments have been condensed and lightly edited.

Arlington ISD: Near-Miss Reporting Program

When workplace injuries were on the rise in Arlington ISD, staff investigated the facts and identified the root causes. It turned out that many incidents could have been prevented. Arlington ISD’s award-winning solution? The Near-Miss Reporting Program.

The risk management team strategically placed posters across the district that included a QR code linking to a simple form that made it easy for employees to report hazards that could cause injuries. The initiative has not only reduced injuries, but it also strengthened the district’s safety culture.

Communication and follow-up are just as important as reporting. If employees take time to report a near miss, leadership must take corrective action. Otherwise, participation drops.

What was the purpose of implementing this program?

“Arlington ISD emphasized near-miss reporting to prevent injuries before they happen,” said Jennifer Bakare-Brown, the district’s safety manager. “We wanted to bring forth a proactive approach to all the injuries we were having here within the district.”

What has the program accomplished?

“By reporting early and making sure it’s done in a very methodological and structured way, we don’t have those losses, those costs,” said Curt Fernandez, director of Risk Management.

“We have seen an increased number of near misses being reported, meaning that employees are engaged with the process,” Bakare-Brown said.

What does winning an excellence award mean to your district?

“It means a lot, especially for Arlington ISD because this department is fairly new, and it’s a new program,” Bakare-Brown said. “It’s very important that our employees see that we’re being recognized and we’re able to share this information with other districts so they may implement similar programs.”

“This Excellence Award underlines the commitment of our leadership,” Fernandez said. “This particular award recognizes our Near-Miss Reporting Program, and the essence of that is making sure that everybody contributes and lets us know that we have issues before those issues turn into injuries.”

Beeville ISD: Communitywide Emergency Drill Simulations and Reunification Planning

Strong risk management programs include a healthy dose of self-evaluation. The goal: Identify and address gaps before they cause incidents. That’s what Beeville ISD did with its security program. While the district had implemented foundational safety protocols, leadership recognized the need to bolster emergency response capabilities. The award winning effort was a communitywide emergency drill simulation program that included:

• Coordination with community partners such as law enforcement, EMS, fire departments, and hospitals
• Realistic, but age-appropriate, active-shooter drills
• Training to ensure staff and students know what to do during an emergency
• A formal process for reunifying students with their families

Beeville ISD’s initiative positioned the district to better respond to emergencies, and it strengthened trust with the community.

The district included student actors and simulated gunshot systems to deliver a realistic drill and training experience.

What was the purpose of implementing the program?

“Our ultimate goal is to make sure that our staff and our students come to school and return home to their loved ones each and every day,” said Beeville ISD Superintendent Travis Fanning. “Students cannot be productive and they cannot learn in an environment where they don’t feel safe and secure.”

What makes this a standout program?

“What stood out to me the most with Beeville ISD’s planning for these events is just their willingness to collaborate with all these different entities and bring everybody to the table,” said Ryan Garza, emergency management coordinator for Bee County and the City of Beeville.

Why is this program beneficial to your district?

“Practicing reunification makes us more efficient and more effective,” said Art Gamez, the district’s chief of police. “It allows them to test themselves and how they’re going to perform and be able to work through those stressful situations. Instead of having to think, you’re starting to do.”

What does winning an excellence award mean to your district?

“Kudos to everybody involved. It is a testament to what Beeville stands for,” Gamez said. “We want other communities to take hold of what we’re doing and really start their own program.”

“Receiving the Excellence Award helps us realize that people are watching the great work that we’re doing each and every single day,” Fanning said. “It’s bringing recognition that we are truly centered and focused on students first and safety as our priority.”

Hawley ISD: Transportation Safety

In Illinois, a 6-year-old boy was left alone at a bus stop for an hour in freezing temperatures because the driver dropped him off early without notifying his parents. A similar situation played out in Maryland, where a student was put on the wrong bus and ended up miles from home.

With an eye toward protecting students and avoiding route delays, Hawley ISD purchased bus-tracking and student check-in software.

The system empowers transportation staff to monitor bus locations in real time and address delays immediately. Drivers use the system to check students in and out. Parents and administrators receive digital confirmation that each student boarded the bus and safely arrived at their destination.

Technology has streamlined Hawley ISD’s operations, but it’s no substitute for human-to human communication. The district launched a dedicated, after-hours phone line for parents to get answers and report concerns.

What was the purpose of implementing the program?

“Making sure we get kids to the right stops and making sure that parents know where their kids are is important,” Superintendent Cassidy McBrayer said. “We’ve always struggled with identifying truly where an address is, and this technology is very accurate as far as mapping. That way, if we have a bus driver who’s substituting or you know, somebody new gets on the bus, then we have a good tracking of where all those kiddos are.”

What has the program accomplished?

“One of the things that we like about it is that it syncs up with our student software. So, if we have kids who aren’t at school that day, the bus driver knows that getting on the bus. It helps with delays. They’re not sitting waiting on kids who weren’t at school today,” McBrayer said.

“The after-hours transportation line has given us a method for parents to get hold of somebody. Typically, in any school district, the campus office is mayhem at release time. We’ve got our office people everywhere wrapping up at the end of the day. So, this gives one phone number that if a parent has a bus router and they need to get hold of someone, they have somebody who’s just dedicated to answering those phone lines,” McBrayer said. “Our bus drivers are always very concerned and take those kids’ safety very seriously, and administration makes things easier for everybody.”

What does winning an excellence award mean to your district?

“Our bus drivers, a lot of times that’s a group of employees that doesn’t necessarily get recognition, but they have one of the most critical jobs that we have. And so, it’s really important, and I think exciting, for them to be recognized,” McBrayer said.

Irving ISD: Rebuilding Engagement and Safety Culture Through a Revamped Loss Control Committee

There is no template for managing risk in schools. Custodial staff face different hazards than teachers. The same goes for maintenance teams and grounds crews. Irving ISD’s Loss Control Committee harnesses employees’ perspectives to drive continuous improvement in the safety program.

The revamped committee includes representatives from HR, special education, maintenance, athletics, technology, the Fund, and more. With an influx of new members, meeting attendance increased by an eye-popping 200%.

The committee’s collaborative structure, open forums, and cross-departmental discussions provide insight into the unique safety challenges faced across the district. Powered by fresh insights and expertise, the committee and its work have informed updates to safety protocols and training initiatives.

Structured facilitation — clear agendas, rotating facilitators, and open discussion — keep loss control committee meetings focused and productive.

What is the purpose of the committee?

“The Loss Control Committee was created as an opportunity to allow for different departments to come together to review our loss data,” said Ashly Witek, director of Benefits, Risk Management, and HRIS Operations. “We’re just wanting to add more perspectives so that we can engage more with our loss data to hopefully reduce risk and injury in the district.”

What makes this a standout initiative?

“I think that what makes it unique is that people show up and they care, and they have really good ideas,” Witek said. “We’re able to look at data in a way that’s meaningful and to come up with real solutions to challenges that we’re facing, not only just in specific departments, but districtwide.”

Why is the committee beneficial?

“It brings together a lot of different departments, and the environment is fun, I think, and we collaborate a lot,” Witek said. “So, by engaging different departments, we get a lot of different perspectives, but we also have different solutions that come up, and it just allows the opportunity for collaboration. Nothing feels better than coming up with a solution as a team that works well and causes improvement for the district.”

What does winning an excellence award mean to your district?

“Receiving the Excellence Award to our district is such a great honor,” Witek said. “It’s really just a validation of the work that the team has done to improve our processes. It highlights a culture where departments have input in reducing loss for the district, which is so important as a public school.”

Prosper ISD: Driven to Safety — A Proactive Approach to Accident Reduction

Policies and procedures should be part of every school’s safety program. But genuine efforts to protect employees must be built on more than decrees like “employees shall” and “up to and including termination.” At Prosper ISD, workplace safety thrives because employees and leadership share responsibility for ensuring everyone goes home injury-free.

Under the district’s award-winning initiative, employees draw on their experiences and observations to submit ideas for improving workplace safety. When an idea leads to measurable improvement, the employee is publicly recognized and awarded a gift card.

Prosper ISD’s safety incentive program empowers front-line staff to take an active role in preventing workplace injuries. The result: fewer injuries, improved morale, and stronger safety culture.

Even small ideas, such as repositioning equipment and improving bus-loading protocols, can move the needle in meaningful ways.

What is the purpose of the program?

“We were seeing a pattern of minor preventable incidents — mirror strikes, cone hits, tail swing issues, and tight campus loading situations,” said Teri Mapengo, director of Transportation. “Each one by itself might seem small, but together they were affecting safety exposure, morale, retraining time, repair costs, and public confidence. It became clear that if we didn’t address these smaller incidents proactively, they could lead to larger risks.”

What makes this a standout initiative?

“We created a simple and nonintimidating way for employees to submit safety ideas based on what they observe in daily operations,” Mapengo said. “Everyone who submits a safety suggestion is entered into a gift card drawing, which encourages participation and reinforces that every observation matters.”

What is the importance of front-line employee involvement?

“They see traffic flow issues, campus congestion, student behavior patterns, and visibility challenges in real time,” Mapengo said. “They often spot risk trends long before leadership sees them in reports. If you want meaningful safety improvement, you have to include the people doing the job every day.”

What does winning an excellence award mean to your district?

“Receiving this recognition is meaningful because it reflects the work of our entire transportation team — not just leadership,” Mapengo said. “For the district, it reinforces that investing in culture, training, and employee engagement produces real results.”

This article first appeared in the April/May 2026 issue of Texas Lone Star.