two-way radios. The older units had limited range and lacked the capacity for cloud-based upgrading. Director of Transportation Matt Schultz said that while there were challenges along the way, including the need to upgrade office desktop units, the move has been worth the effort. “Overall, the change has been a huge success,” he
said. “It allows us to communicate quicker, more directly, and with a much greater range with buses.” In addition, the new equipment allows use of multiple channels to support communications with security staff. Adopting new tech to address problems when equip-
ment no longer meshes with corresponding units was the situation faced by George Shay. When the transportation supervisor at Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency in Salem, Oregon, came on the job three years ago, he wondered why the radios on his buses, which transport Head Start students, were not working. “What occurred was when a school district that we
piggybacked on with the radios went digital, we did not upgrade with them,” he recalled. “Instead, they issued cell phones to the drivers for communicating with teachers and supervisors.” Shay said he felt a better solution would be to upgrade to
digital radios, and he was recently successful in convincing management and board members to make the investment.
It is not unusual for the process of upgrading tech-
nology to come with budgetary hurdles or other challenges. But sometimes it’s simply a matter of taking full advantage of what is already available, noted Deb- bie Schomisch, transportation director at Farwell Area Schools in Michigan. “The school district bought our routing program for
the previous transportation director,” she recalled. “But he was old school and refused to use it.” When she took over, one of her earliest moves was to
make use of the existing software. “The drivers fought the new system for a while, but as
soon as they realized it made their jobs easier the fight was over,” she explained. The results have also been positive from a manage-
ment perspective. “It drastically cut the amount of time spent setting up
bus routes before the beginning of the school year,” she noted. “I really like being able to see where my students are located and adjusting routes accordingly.” Taking on a tech upgrade may not be easy, but im- plementing change in stages can bring good results, Schomisch added. That was the strategy she followed in upgrading cameras. “We went from a one-camera system to two cameras, and now I have buses with four
36 School Transportation News • APRIL 2024
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