BPS dad and mom will be capable of observe their college students buses utilizing a GPS-based app within the coming college yr, Superintendent Mary Skipper stated.
“With the start of summer transportation, BPS transportation began our use of Zum … which includes the introduction of GPS navigation tablets on our school buses and the Zum mobile app for BPS parents and guardians,” Skipper stated throughout the College Committee assembly final week. “With this Zum app, we’re committed to improving transparency, reliability and convenience for students and families who use BPS school buses.”
With the brand new GPS know-how and app, Skipper detailed, dad and mom and guardians can “view their students’ bus assignment, track bus rides in real time, receive automated delay notifications and alerts when buses are arriving, and get notified when the student gets on and off the school bus.”
The brand new tech was rolled out in the beginning of the summer time for buses taking round 3,000 college students to prolonged college yr, examination college initiative, particular training and different packages, in keeping with the superintendent. By the tip of the primary week, almost 90% of the bus drivers had been reportedly ready to make sure Zum was working to trace their routes.
The district goals to make sure “all bus drivers and transportation staff” are educated within the know-how earlier than the beginning of the college yr, Skipper stated, together with creating a plan to help dad and mom and guardians in studying methods to use the app.
BPS transportation director Dan Rosengard famous there shall be a “learning curve” because the buses improve from the 200 in use this summer time to 640 within the fall, however the staff is getting ready for the shift.
The change comes after BPS has made gradual progress on many transportation points prior to now yr, enhancing on each staffing for college bus drivers and aides. In a 2022 settlement to keep away from a state takeover, the district agreed to enhance buses which had been chronically late, failed to fulfill particular training wants and had different points.
The district was utilizing paper directs for drivers, Rosengard stated, noting that a few of the previous “biggest challenges” had been for drivers making an attempt to navigate a route for the primary time. The GPS navigation system ought to assist all drivers, however significantly substitute or standby drivers, full routes with fewer incidents, he added.
The system may even assist observe ridership information to enhance effectivity within the system and observe late buses and determine points in actual time.
“We’re still learning with the system and figuring out exactly how we’ll use all this information to improve our operations and our (standing operating procedures) and all that,” Rosengard stated, “but it just gives us a lot more real time information that we didn’t have before, so we can switch from a reactive mindset to a proactive mindset.”
