began the schoolyear in chaos due to issues with the district’s transportation provider. The school district saidthecompany had staffing problems caused by the other chronic nation- wide pandemic, a shortage of school bus drivers. The result was pre-kindergarten through eighth grade classes being cancelled on the second day of school. Buses were running so late that some students were spending up to three hours on the bus. One parent said it took their 7-year-old daughter three hours to get home from school, and she lives not even a mile away. There were instances of drivers running
the wrong routes and students getting on the wrong buses. Parents did not know where their children were or where the buses were. Some parents had to pick up their children from school. Superintendent Peter Dar, issued a public
statement that he lacked confidence that the carrier could meet the district’s expectations and
minimize travel times for students. News reports said he called the bus issues unacceptable. Jaime Russell, information technology di-
rector for Mansfield, said that while the driver shortage was not unique to the district, the impact was much more acute at the beginning of the school year. “Our district, like a lot of districts, was facing the challenge of a staffing shortage of available bus drivers,” he began. “The need for drivers outweighed the availabili- ty. Given that challenge families were faced with the situation of buses arriving later than usual.” Russell pointed out that while a temporary arrangement was put into place, a committee formed to explore potential permanent solu- tions. “Our idea was if parents could use their smartphones to track the buses, they could better plan,” Russell said. “So, we did an RFP to evaluate solutions that were out there. We de- cided Zonar MyView would be the best solution.” Similar to other app technology, parents can
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