“And in terms of coverage … you have to remember
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that these are powered, higher quality antennas that are usually mounted on the exterior of the bus, not at all the same as driving around with your cell phone,” he said. “We’re talking larger powered antennas that are specifically put outside the bus and then the Wi- Fi antennas are inside the bus to provide the Wi-Fi network for the students. So, it picks up more signal than you would just get from your cell phone. If you think about, where do I have coverage on my Verizon phone? This is going to be different.” Adam Greenwood, the transportation program administrator for Laramie County School District #1 in Wyoming, said the district in partnership with the technology department applied and received round one of the ECF money. He noted that they were awarded about $240,000 to install 129 Wi-Fi routers across their entire fleet. In reviewing the data at this report, he said the routes
with the highest usage are the rural routes and on activity trips. One rural route is 270 miles long and trips destined for sporting events can travel upwards of 600 to 700 miles outside of the district. As the school district completes its first year of the
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Wi-Fi program, he explained that the district is pulling the data to determine what routes the Wi-Fi hotspots should remain on. He added that he sees Wi-Fi equipped buses as something that will continue at the district, though maybe not fleetwide. A huge application he foresees could be parking the buses at underserved areas that don’t have Wi-Fi con- nection, so during particularly bad snow storms, for instance, the district can go virtual instead of closing for a snow day, he noted. Greenwood added that only district owned devices
can log into the Wi-Fi. “We also get a report of websites that have been attempted to be accessed, that our fire- wall blocked,” he said, adding that he was shocked that not many students try to use Wi-Fi for social media. “It seems like students are logging on and using it for legitimate reasons.” In the end, Laramie County’s adoption of school bus
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Wi-Fi—and its use of the ECF program—comes down to childhood education, which is why his school dis- trict and others exist in the first place. “We’ve invested a lot of money into technology on our buses,” Greenwood said. “If you look at the GPS, the camera systems, the turn-by-turn tablet, student ridership, parent apps, that all kind of indirectly bene- fits students. We looked at Wi-Fi because it’s a piece of technology that will directly benefit our students.”
54 School Transportation News • JUNE 2022
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