SPECIAL REPORT
remote. But according to an Education Week survey, of 461 school districts, as shared by the industry’s School Transportation Aligned for Return to School (STARTS) Task Force during a webinar last month, 48 percent are starting the new school year with remote learning only, with most of those being in large cities. About 28 percent are reopening in-person for all students while about 20 percent are offering hybrid models. The remaining 3 percent were undecided. For students to return to school, transporting them is a critical path. Many school districts already have fleet technology
solutions in place to manage routes, bus movements, maintenance, GPS tracking, and other features. Now, schools are repurposing the applications where they can. But the solution providers are also adding on fea- tures specifically to deal with the new coronavirus. These features seem to fall in line with cleaning, screening, and accountability, all of which align as close as they can to CDC guidelines and contact tracing efforts. This is a preemptive measure. If schools reopen for in-person instruction, or even
a hybrid of in-person and virtual classes, transporting students can be made safer. If a school is not reopening for in-person instruction at all, and they repurpose their existing fleet technology or adopt new, they’ll be better prepared to manage the fragility of transporting students when things approach a new normal.
Leveraging Existing Technology With Some Add-Ons CalAmp’s Synovia Solutions currently delivers GPS-
powered fleet intelligence systems. Pre-trip applications include a comprehensive checklist of anything needed to monitor the inside of a school bus daily. Exterior pre-trip is a checklist for everything exterior to the bus, including lights, tires, mirrors and safety devices. “We’ve been using the Synovia products for several
years now and doing the student tracking for probably three years,” shared Crosby at Higley USD. “I think this will be our fourth year. All our students have a bus pass or a school ID, or they use their cellphone to scan on and off the bus. We’re planning to continue that this year once school learning resumes.” To address contact tracing needs arising from the
pandemic, CalAmp introduced Bus Guardian over the summer to instantaneously provide bus ridership verifi- cation of both drivers and students. This becomes quite useful if a student or driver becomes ill. It also provides a hygiene verification system to help administrators moni- tor and report on real-time sanitization efforts. Elisa Schubert is the manager for the Elco and
Cornwall-Lebanon Divisions of Brightbill Transportation, a private and full-service student transportation contractor. Brightbill uses Bus Guardian for morning pre-trips as well as driver time and attendance. “When the drivers do the pre-trip, if all things are good
20 School Transportation News • SEPTEMBER 2020
and working properly, all they need to do is submit the re- port,” said Schubert. “They will get a notice [asking if] they are sure they want to send this report. This allows them to take a moment and make sure that they have reported everything correctly, because once they send the report, they are verifying that they did this.” Crosby noted that his district is also incorporating the
use of tablets that are already installed fleetwide. “One thing that we’re going to be doing with that is adding a section to the post-trip for the driver to log every time the bus is sani- tized and cleaned,” he explained. “Our goal in our district is to sanitize the bus after every group of students. When the bus empties out every time, the bus will be sanitized before the next route. We’re going to be logging that, so we’ll be able to see who sanitized it and at what time.” Zonar, which also provides fleet technology solutions
for school buses, recently announced its “COVID-19 Return to School Safety Solutions,” a suite of dedicat- ed compliance resources and configurable software solutions designed to establish new COVID-19 safety pro- tocols for school bus drivers, students and fleet managers when schools return to in-person learning. The company designed the solutions to help fleet managers and drivers address student tracking, verify sanitization of buses, and aid in contact tracing. David Benson, transportation director for Chesapeake
Public Schools in Virginia, said his district has used and will continue to use Zonar to monitor buses. However, the district plans to reconfigure the application to help assist with the reutilization of buses during COVID-19 and develop an inspection protocol that will allow staff to collect screening data for each of his drivers daily. “While we are going to begin the year virtually, we do plan to monitor the COVID-19 situation and return to face- to-face instruction as soon as it is deemed safe to do so,” said Benson. “We are planning to socially distance students on the bus by having only one student per seat and requir- ing face masks or coverings for all passengers. Additionally, we are also planning to sanitize all our buses between a.m. and p.m. routes. Drivers will also be provided with sanitizer to be used on high-frequency touched areas.” Cypress-Fairbanks ISD located outside of Houston has
used Zonar to to provide student ridership information and engine diagnostic data. Cy-Fair, the third-largest school district in Texas, planned at this report to open for both on-campus and remote instruction. Transportation will be available to students who register for physical classes. The department plans to repurpose the Zonar application for COVID-19 purposes of cleaning, screen- ing and accountability. Kayne Smith, director of transportation for the dis-
trict, said students must wear a face mask while on the bus. A disposable mask will be provided in the morn- ing, if a student does not have one. They must sanitize their hands upon entering the bus, and when feasible
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