The School Board has voted unanimously to purchase bus routing software and an alert system that would be used to notify parents of bus delays. The Board unanimously voted down GPS (Global Positioning System) services that would enable parents, the School District and bus terminal staff to track the buses in real time. Parents would have accessed the GPS technology by downloading an application on their smart device and subscribing to the service for $5 per month.
Member John Laferriere suggested the District survey parents to get a sense of what portion of the community would likely use the technology, which would cost the District $750 annually. Business Administrator Peter Curro said the GPS service would be an enhancement of the alert system, and the associated fee would be waived in the first year if Londonderry agrees to pilot the technology.
“I think parents in this town would jump on the opportunity to track their children’s buses during the cold, snowy, inclement conditions, when they suspect the buses are running slow,” he said. “I know we all look for those visuals, but there is such a thing as information overload. I don’t know if I’m ready to commit to this annual fee,” member Leitha Reilly said. “I’m one for seeing how it goes with the alert system. Let’s see how efficient that is and get some feedback from parents. Maybe we could ask the bus company to waive the fee for the next year.” “We may find out after having the alert system in place, parents may not feel so compelled to know where their child’s bus is all the time,” member Nancy Hendricks agreed.
The cost of the bus routing software is $19,000 in FY15, then $4,000 annually for maintenance. The alert system costs an additional $1,000 annual fee. The items will be subsidized under the Business Administrator’s Professional Service line.
“What’s nice about the software is the efficiency of the routes. And as new streets come on, we’ve reached a point, with the size of the community, the software would be extremely helpful over doing it by hand,” Curro said.
“This strikes me as a management tool that allows us to be more efficient and communicate better with parents and teachers in the District,” Reilly said.
“With Woodmont coming on board, I would like to have at least a few months of using this so we just have to plug the new developments in,” said Curro, noting he has asked the bus company to implement a dual system next year, using the new technology and working out bus routes by hand.
“You do such a great job at this, why do this now?” Chairman Steve Young asked.
“We’re thinking to the future. We’ve reached a point where we’re large enough we should have a computer-aided system,” Curro said. “We may find there are better designed routes than we’re doing now. You start losing efficiency when you’re doing routes manually rather than having a system that uses algorithms, which could even tell us we don’t need a bus in service.”
Additionally, Curro said the alert system will enhance the District’s busing by improving communication with parents.
For example, during the fire at Murray’s Auto Salvage, buses were unable to reach homes on Hall Road. Curro noted it would have been beneficial to have the alert system to notify parents on Hall Road that the buses weren’t coming that morning so they could have made alternative plans, rather than waiting for the buses.
“There were enough times where the forecast was light snow, and we got hit harder than we expected. A simple text – the bus is running 10 minutes late, hang in there – would have calmed a lot of parents down,” he said.
Superintendent Nate Greenberg said it might be best to give parents a couple months to get acclimated with the alert system, then provide an opportunity for them to respond to whether or not they would like to see the system enhanced.