E
fficiency and safety are two of many returns on investments school transportation departments have derived from taking deeper dives into technology. Such is the case at Cypress-Fair-
banks Independent School District in Houston, Texas. The state’s largest student transportation operation is
heralded industrywide for its embrace of technology. The district transitioned over the summer to Tyler Tech- nologies’ integrated student transportation software to set or measure KPIs that track on-time performance and actual versus planned routing. It took a total team effort, led by Assistant Director of Transportation Cheryll Hill, to implement the new routing software and comple- menting Tyler Drive tablets in 700 school buses, just in time for the start of the new school year last month. Cy-Fair uses technologies to record overall vehicle and fleet performance as well as tracking cost of ownership and cost per mile. The latter two factors—addressed by pulling telematics data from Geotab devices on the buses—are critical in that the district’s fleet relies on diesel, gasoline, propane, and electric. That helps the district make decisions on long-term
investments and routes. On-time performance is a key metric examined as part of the school board’s annual goal monitoring process. Another is driver retention, for which the district uses various programs. Cy-Fair needed a one-stop-shop solution that blended routing into tablets that also track students and communicate real-time location of buses to parents. “We were looking for something that would give us
everything at one stop [so] we went to one person and we could go to the tablets, to the GPS, to the routing, and all of it would be under one umbrella,” Hill shared. “But giving our drivers the ability to have the turn-by-turn [directions] was huge. And them being able to know where they’re going, especially as much as we’re sub- bing and picking up other routes these days. That helped us a lot as far as making that decision.” The turn-by-turn application will be a significant
improvement for the bus drivers and directors who may find themselves driving the bus and don’t want to get lost, noted Kayne Smith, Cy-Fair’s director of transportation. Another significant KPI to be utilized more this school
year is comparing actual versus planned routing, to help ensure routes are operating as intended, Smith added. “We look at the routes and pinpoint how many ac-
cidents occur at that location,” he added “We consider if we need to reroute different areas. We’ve actually blocked double left turn lanes and different intersections and neighborhoods because of accidents that could be dangerous.”
Kim Coleman, Cy-Fair’s assistant director of opera- 56 School Transportation News • SEPTEMBER 2023
tions, oversees routing and the switch to Tyler’s Student Transportation solution powered by Traversa. She credits the leadership of Hill, the expertise of router Katie Gentry, and the district’s technology department with a successful transition. “Routing is the core of the transportation operation,
but so much more is involved,” Coleman explained. “While partnering with Tyler, my Cy-Fair operations team’s routing experience helped us ask the right ques- tions, and Tyler helped us resolve any issues that we faced during the transition. The routing is fast, and we are looking forward to developing new ideas for utiliz- ing the software features to improve our operation even more as our school year progresses.” Hill also noted that Tyler’s parent communication app
provides parents with more information on bus location and arrival at students stops, which addresses safety as well as convenience. No parent or student wants to get caught sitting in the rain or cold wondering where their school bus is and when, if, it will arrive. She added that Carlos Decancio in maintenance
played a key role in organizing the Tyler Drive tablet installs. “Carlos set up install training for some of our employ- ees to help continue to install as necessary on buses that may not have been available at the time the crew was doing the mass installs,” she explained. “We had cer- tain timelines to achieve, first one being 300 buses that needed to be done before summer school.” With school startup on Aug. 28, tablets are now in-
stalled on 725 buses, with about 690 of those on routes, at this writing. Install kits are on another 950 spare buses that could be used for substitute routes or activity trips. “We are excited about how the route directions and
student information transmits to the driver’s tablet,” Coleman added. “The vehicle tracking is amazing and is helpful for many reasons, including our field trip pro- gram. We are encouraging our parents to embrace this technology and register for the [Tyler’s] parent applica- tion. It is phenomenal and I believe once they try it, the parents will love it.” Kimberly Klenk, the district’s transportation coordinator
for customer care and systems support, noted that having one system capable of providing all student and route in- formation has already proved to be beneficial. She shared that during the initial launch, a malfunction of student verification occurred, but a fix was quickly implemented, and Cy-Fair staff received the necessary training. “In the past, the customer care team would utilize
various platforms to answer parent and student con- cerns,” she commented. “The Tyler system allows representatives to collect all data needed to expedite
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