can move quickly to both the district and STA. Families can alert transportation staff when contact information needs to be corrected. STA can communicate outward, too. If a bus is run- ning 15 minutes late, the contractor sends a message directly to the families assigned to that bus. Krahu- lik-Knapp noted that creating a direct digital connection between families, district staff and STA gives all three a way to respond without relying solely on phone calls. “That has truly helped us being able to manage the stu-
dents that we transport a little better,” Krahulik-Knapp said. And the ability for a contractor to proactively notify an
entire busload of a delay represented something families was a novel concept for Allentown. “That has never hap- pened in this district,” he said. “Being able to bring that in and do this is an amazing thing for these parents.”
More Than a Vendor Relationship Software is only one piece of the implementation. The customer service team is another. Krahulik-Knapp was familiar with Tyler from a previous job, where he had worked with Versatrans software, the company’s previous-generation transportation solution. During a fast-paced transition, he said, the respon-
siveness of Tyler’s training staff helped the district get operational quickly. Those relationships continued well beyond implementation. Krahulik-Knapp said he still talks to his original sales rep-
resentative, even though that person is no longer directly responsible for the district. “The people at Tyler have really made my connection with them and our district’s connec- tion with them the best that it could be,” he said.
Telling a Similar Story Devin O’Bryan started as a school bus driver for Nelson County Schools in Kentucky about a decade ago, when
technology played a minimal role in the transportation operations. Route directions were often written on paper, sometimes with instructions as informal as “go to the red barn and turn around,” he recalled. Today, the district operates with technology woven into nearly every part of the transportation day. Nelson County now equips its fleet of roughly 65 buses with tablets, which drivers use for daily routes, field trips and the district’s “collab runs” that transport students to places such as the local airport and hospital for real-world learning experiences. The district oper- ates about 52 to 53 daily routes. For O’Bryan, now the district’s director of transportation, the need for more technology came from the need for better visibility, communication and efficiency. The district uses BusRi- ght for routing, which gives staff real-time insights into bus locations and ridership while providing drivers with turn-by-turn guidance. “I think back to all the times I was out subbing, and I had a paper route sheet,” O’Bryan said. “It’s a whole lot smoother when you have something telling you to turn left, turn right, stop here.” Through the parent app, Nelson County can distribute
route information and send instant notifications when buses are delayed, giving parents what O’Bryan de- scribed as an “Uber-like” experience while cutting down on calls to the transportation office. Safety technology has also advanced. Each bus is
equipped with four interior and exterior cameras, giving transportation staff a way to quickly review incidents and determine what happened. The district is also add- ing stop-arm cameras following a change in Kentucky law that allows school districts to issue civil penalties for illegal passing. O’Bryan said technology adds another layer of accountability, both for student behavior and for motorists around the bus.
Meet Super User Andrew Krahulik-Knapp Andrew Krahulik-Knapp started in the industry as a school bus driver in 2008 and moved through safety, training, regional safety
leadership, assistant management and ultimately terminal management before joining Allentown School District in Pennsylvania. He describes himself as someone who learned transportation “the old-school way.” The experience has shaped how he ap-
proaches new technology. Before Allentown introduced the Tyler Technologies My Ride app to its first two pilot schools, Krahulik-Knapp and members of his
team tested it themselves. They selected students in the system and spent about a month watching their trips through the app. He said they wanted to understand the experience thoroughly enough that when families began using it, the transportation
team knew what it consisted of. “I think just being open to it, but making sure you have the safeguards in place, and you do it thoroughly,” Krahulik-Knapp ad- vised on implementing technology. “You’ve got to take it step by step.” For larger districts, he encouraged keeping an open mind about technology but to resist the temptation to deploy a solution simply because it is available. That same philosophy explains why some pieces of Allentown’s technology roadmap remain on the wish list. Tablets on buses, for example, are something Krahulik-Knapp would like to add, but funding realities in an urban district require careful prioritization.
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