HURON SCHOOL DISTRICT 2-2 IN HURON, SOUTH DAKOTA Meanwhile, Kathie Bostrom, director of transportation at Huron School District 2-2 in Huron, South Dakota, told STN that her district now uses Zonar Z Pass student ridership tracking. Te district has 35 buses and 40 drivers. “We needed a way to find students who were reported as being lost, as well as a system that would give us real-time bus ridership rosters,” she said, explaining the district’s rationale for the technology adoption. She said the tracking system has significantly decreased the amount of time it takes for staff or even parents to locate a child who has been reported missing. “Often times, after we have provided the parent with the bus stop location and time that their child scanned off of a bus with their Z Pass, they are able to locate their child without any further assistance from us.” She said her district staff was eager to use the new system, in order
to increase student safety, because it brought “better monitoring of the student ridership locations and times.” Bostrom said she feels her team has managed its new system “very well,” and they are even expecting to see a future role in school buses for artificial intelligence usage.
LEE COUNTY SCHOOLS IN FORT MYERS, FLORIDA Robert Codie, executive director of Lee County Schools, told STN that his district has acquired many new high-tech products, including the “Where’s the Bus” parent app to track bus location, the VEO GPS solution from TripSpark, multiple cameras inside the bus, and Bus Hive for web-based field trip request and tracking software. Te district operates 912 buses with 841 drivers. He said he believes those products were selected because they meet the needs of the students. “We are seeking to improve our operational efficiency and provide superior customer service to our student riders,” he added.
Lee County was one of the biggest high-tech winners that STN
surveyed, racking up well-over a million dollars in savings per school year. “If we can sustain the number of routes we reduced from 2018 to 2019, which is a reduction of 48 routes, we can save approximately $1,680,000,” Codie said, especially since the new software purchases did not cost more than had been estimated. “So far, the equipment and software have worked very well for our department.” Te usual purchasing sequence may also play a role in staff acceptance. “We use a phased approach when purchasing new technology, to ensure product efficiency, dependability and usability (that is) employee friendly.” For example, the district purchased GPS software prior to purchasing the parent app that tracks a student’s bus. “We wanted to ensure that we purchased products that would work systematically with one another,” he added. In terms of costs, Codie said the district purchases items based on need, not price. “Sometimes you have to incur the up-front costs to meet your district’s needs.” Other purchases included hand-held radios that integrated with bus radios, to enhance the ability to communicate with employees during an emergency. Codie said he believes the district saved money when it purchased
its new high-tech equipment. “GPS allowed us to capture turn-by- turn behaviors of drivers, and if they were following their route,” he
42 School Transportation News • SEPTEMBER 2018
A student scans onto the school bus, a growing trend to keep administrators and parents in the know.
added. “Our GPS system allows us to see the actual route versus the planned route, and any route deviations.”
When it comes to acquiring the next generation of equipment, Codie said he feels his staff is very progressive and eager to keep up with other top districts nationwide. “Terefore, they were very open to new equipment. We are always looking for ways to be creative, innovative and efficient,” he noted. Te reasons the purchases were made are also worth understand-
ing. “We made purchases to improve student safety, route efficiency, customer service (internal and external), employee morale and to reduce costs,” according to Codie. He added that he sees emerging capabilities, such as collision mitigation technology and artificial intelligence, as playing a role in school bus operations. “Technology is always evolving, and I believe student safety is first and foremost,” he said.
CYPRESS FAIRBANKS ISD TRANSPORTATION, HOUSTON Joel Mooneyham, assistant director of fleet services at Cypress Fairbanks ISD, shared that the district purchased new equipment, software programs, GPS tracking and surveillance systems, to enhance its ability to transport students safer and more efficiently.” Mooneyham said Transfinder has proved to be user-friendly routing
software that the routing supervisor uses to input all routes. CFISD also uses AngelTrax, Safety Vision and REI surveillance systems. “Te district has experimented with different systems, to try to find the one that meets our needs in capturing data for administration while students are on board,” Mooneyham explained. While each system has
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