PRINCE FREDERICK, Md. — Calvert County is making two key updates to the district’s school bus systems, claiming that these changes will improve safety and efficiency.
The district will implement a cloud-based software system that incorporates both routing and financial technologies. Currently, those two services are run through separate, hardware-based software. This new system will be cloud-based and bring everything into one program.
Kevin Hook, director of transportation, said his team has been looking for a software that’s capable of doing both of these services in one package. The company they selected, BusPlanner USA of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, has already been adopted by Charles and St. Mary’s county schools.
“It’s mind-blowing what it can do,” Hook added.
Hook was unsure if adopting this program would improve the Here Comes the Bus app that parents use to track their kids’ school bus trips. For now, Here Comes the Bus remains unchanged, but he’s hopeful the new program will help parents, too.
The board approved a three-year subscription to BusPlanner, to be spread across the FY25 and FY26 budgets, with assurances that the program would be up and running by next school year.
Calvert school buses will also get 610 new cameras for the 2025–26 school year to replace the ones onboard at present, at the cost of $1,040,550. The current bus cameras are 12 to 15 years old.
Each bus will have six cameras that will be able to save approximately eight weeks of footage on the camera’s hard drive before overwriting it. The current cameras save three to four weeks of footage.
Hook emphasized that the technology is always backward-compatible and there are options to save footage, upload it, and increase storage going forward. Buying the cameras in bulk instead of piecemeal will help the technology stay up to date and consistent across the school buses.
Contact our news desk at news@thebaynet.com
