BROKEN ARROW, Okla. — Between students learning new drivers and bus numbers and drivers navigating new routes, the start of the school year can be tricky.
Broken Arrow Public Schools switched over to a new bus tracking app called 'My Ride K-12' to enhance safety and streamline the pick-up and drop-off process.
"With 15,000 students eligible for transportation, 200 buses traveling 115 square miles, going as far north as Catoosa, as far south as Coweta, we have quite the challenge in mapping so it’s been a slow process over the last week and a half but were making great changes every day to improve the process," said Rosalyn Vann-Jackson.
Vann-Jackson oversees transportation for the district.
She said with 'My Ride K-12,' parents will get real-time GPS data they weren't previously getting. It's also capable of sending out automated push notifications to notify parents of any changes.
"That’s one less communication if a bus is running late, that a parent doesn’t have to make," she said. "This morning alone, we sent about 35,000 messages to parents. These are messages that state, Hey, Julia’s bus is running 15 minutes late, or Julia’s bus is running a little bit early."
Like with any technology, Vann-Jackson said some bugs need to be worked out. That's what they've been doing the first two weeks of school.
She explained some of the issues they were dealing with, including that if certain settings aren't enabled, parents won't get the notifications or won't be able to see the bus moving on the map, which is the whole point of the app.
“The app is critical when it’s working properly to give us a higher level of automation," said Vann-Jackson.
In the first two weeks of school, 2 News has received calls about overcrowded buses, late pick up and drop off times, and students getting lost on the wrong bus.
This program is intended to eliminate issues like that at BAPS.
"This is not just a piece of mail or a box being delivered; this is precious cargo," said Vann-Jackson. "We want to equip our drivers with the best tools to know our students, and that’s all placed in the apps that we’ve put in place."
The district has also equipped each bus with a tablet, to help ease the drivers minds.
Not only does is play audible directions to help in case they miss a turn and need to keep their focus on the road, the tablet can also alleviate a problem before it begins.
"Let’s say that a student comes to the bus and they don’t know what bus they ride. Our drivers can look that student up in the tablet and identify the right bus for that student so they don’t get on a bus that they shouldn’t be on."
More safety measures are on the way, too. As early as next year, the district plans to roll out a process where students scan their school ID when they get on the bus.
This will give parents the ability to see where their student is in real time, when they got on the bus, and when the bus reached their stop.
BAPS is looking for about ten additional bus drivers to bring them up to full staffing.
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