SIOUX CITY (KTIV) – When a parent contacted us about a consistently late bus, we sought to verify those claims with school district data. It turns out the district is not tracking its buses, but it will be soon.
“One of the other added features that we’ve put on this is that it has a capability of tracking our students when they get on the bus when they get off the bus,” said Tim Paul, the SCCSD director of operations and maintenance.
The district plans to track the bus and the students using a series of tablets, purchased for about $120,000 with American Rescue Plan funds. When students get on and off the bus, they’ll swipe a key fob, logging their movement.
“Of course, for the parents, it’s the comfort and peace of mind of knowing when the student got on and off the bus. But for the district, it allows us to know if a student was missed, or if a student was not in school that day,” said Paul.
Right now the school district does not have that technology on board and that makes it difficult for parents who call to complain about a bus being late or their student not being picked up because there simply isn’t the data to verify whether or not this occurred.
“Now there are delays on days when there’s times we do get behind on transportation, but our goal is every day to get our students to and from school in a safe manner,” said Paul.
While the pilot program is beginning this month, the program won’t go throughout the entire district until the next school year. The district said the new technology will not be available for students who ride a city bus to get to school.
Paul said roughly 300 students, in middle and high schools, use that service, instead of the regular yellow buses.
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