Shannon discusses real-time routing on the second day of school last month with Karen Jensen, a Tyler Technologies trainer who works with the district on routing and GPS system functionality.
fied it meets the minimum requirements. You may exceed those requirements but you cannot go below them.” Koskelowski said he is taking a wait-and-see atti- tude on technology submissions because it changes so fast, “what is current now may be changed or upgrad- ed by 2020.”
THE TWIN RIVERS TECHNOLOGY RENAISSANCE Tim Shannon, the transportation director in the Twin
Rivers Unified School District in northern California, is a self-described “paper hater” with definite leanings to- ward technology, a preference he developed while work- ing at his family’s photo imaging lab. Since he joined the Twin Rivers School District as a bus driver about six years ago, Shannon has transformed the Title I district with 85 percent of its students on free and reduced lunches into the unlikely poster child for school bus technology. He’s done so by obtaining some of the most cutting-edge products on the market, and the reason is for increased student safety and operating efficiency. “Tis is all tied to student success and safety, because students are the reasons why we are here,” Shannon explained. “One of the main reasons why we got the technology was to operate more efficiently and to pro- vide better communication between all parties involved from students to parents to teachers and principals at the various school sites.” Shannon’s onboard technology includes Tyler Technolo- gies GPS, four-camera surveillance systems that allow live feeds, telematics, RFID readers to track students via bus passes, and a portal that tells parents when their child’s bus will arrive and if their child got on or off the bus.
42 School Transportation News • SEPTEMBER 2017
Shannon said the district is rolling out an on-time arrival
screen this fall similar to those in airports so school prin- cipals and teachers can see in realtime when the buses will arrive. “Tis allows school sites to see where the buses are relative to the school site and the estimated arrival times,” he said.
Also planned this fall are upgrades to the districts school bus telematics and an app that will give school sites and parents a window into bus routes so they can monitor the bus’ progress on its route. While the RFID cards enable students to be tracked, by February Shan- non said he expects to install a child-check system to prevent any children being left on the bus. He said the onboard technology is installed on each of the district’s 127 buses. Next up are tablets. Shannon said routes and changes will be sent directly to the onboard screens so changes can be noted immediately for drivers. “Tablets are a fu- ture purchase of ours,” he said. “We’re using everything but tablets (currently). Tese are planned implementa- tions. We want to master the technology we have before we add more.”
ABIGAIL, PAUL AND TECHNOLOGY Unfortunately, many of the technological improve- ments in school bus safety result from student fatalities. Even more unfortunate is that those losses are much more acute and painful than the proposed gains, which them- selves can be agonizingly slow in coming. Tis is especially true when legislation must be passed and standards writ- ten before the laws can be implemented and enforced. Such is the case with Abigail’s Law in New Jersey and
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