School bus systems embrace technology

Quincy tests new card system

COLUMBIA BASIN - School bus systems in the Columbia Basin are becoming more technical, with new ways to track students and bus routes.

A student who steps into a school bus in the Quincy School District may soon be tracked with a personalized card. In the Moses Lake School District, a new routing and planning program was added to the transportation system.

Quincy School District Transportation Director John Harris said Quincy is a pilot district for the card system, which could be in place in the district as early as this week.

"We'll be the only one in Washington with it," Harris said.

When a student boards a bus, they take a card with them. The card is scanned into a system that tracks the time and location the student boarded the bus, as well as the bus boarded. The system records the time the student stepped off the bus and the location.

Using the system, if a child gets on the wrong bus, the transportation department can see which bus they rode, Harris said.

In addition, the transportation department can use the technology to help parents who call about a child not getting off the bus at the end of the school day. Sometimes one parent picks a child up from school, and the other parent didn't know.

"This is another way of double checking that as well," Harris said.

The Moses Lake School District is another district in the Basin that added technology advances to their transportation system.

Staff are undergoing training for routing and planning software.

"The whole district, and all the roads and addresses are in it," said Moses Lake School District Transportation Manager John Eschenbacher.

Eschenbacher said the program downloads student data. Drivers can be provided with a list of the students who belong at each stop. The feature is especially useful at the middle school and high school level, when a student attempts to get off at the wrong stop.

"This allows us to be able to show, 'No, no, no, no, I see Ted, Joe and Bob getting off here. I don't show you getting off here," Eschenbacher said.

One feature allows the district to see what the demographic make up would be if a new school were built. The program can show data such as ethnic background and free and reduced lunch status.

Using the feature, the district can make sure two schools aren't created with opposing demographics.

"That's critical in the makeup of a school district obviously." Eschenbacher said.

In addition, the school district can come up with "what-if" route scenarios without having to draw the route and test drive it.

When the district decides to try a new route out with students, drivers can miss some children, Eschenbacher said.

"This will take those variables out," he said.