By Glenn Rolfe

DAGSBORO — The Indian River School District is looking to the “cloud” for modern transportation technology.

Following a detailed presentation by Shawn Tidwell, IRSD’s transportation route specialist, the district’s board of education May 24 unanimously approved funding for the VEO Now program and WheresTheBus GPS technology — a web-based system that provides up-to-the-minute data on bus flow and can put in the hands of parents an app for tracking their child’s bus.

With this new system, the district’s Department of Transportation — Mr. Tidwell and Supervisor of Transportation Harold Walters — will have the ability “to track our buses through a web-based server, and it allows us to know where our buses are at all times,” Mr. Tidwell said.

Tracking includes where the bus is during a route, as well as arrival and departure status.

“It is impressive that we have the ability to see 165 buses … at a 15-second interval throughout the school day and even in the evenings,” Mr. Tidwell said. “We can break it down for individual buses. We can track where that bus is by minute, by stop, everywhere it is going, where it stopped at, where it ended.”

The VEO Now program will also give schools the ability to know where their individual buses are at all times.

Mr. Tidwell highlighted the importance of the technology to IRSD families. “This gives us the ability to have a WheresTheBus app. Each individual parent … has ability to know where their child is on their bus at 15-second intervals. It is very secure. It is very easy,” he said.

WheresTheBus will enable parents to know precisely when a bus will arrive at their stop and eliminate stress rushing to the bus, he added.

The district’s cost includes a one-time startup fee of $254,135 and an ongoing annual fee of $101,504. The startup cost includes $157,080 for tablets and combo readers for student ridership, $48,250 for on-site installation services, $45,680 for VEO Now GPS software and School View and $3,125 for routing/hosting services.

For the first three years, the cost will be covered through CARES Act funding. Then, as the district moves forward, it will work with IRSD Director of Business Tammy Smith to move this to a line item in the transportation budget, Mr. Tidwell said.

“It looks wonderful. It is a big price tag,” said IRSD board member Gerald Peden. “Is the Finance Department aware of this and do they feel comfortable or have any concerns about reaching that price tag?”

Ms. Smith replied, “For the first few years, we are going to use the (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding), the stimulus funds, to pay for it,” Ms. Smith said. “Then, we’ll just shift some resources to add that to their transportation budget on the local side to cover the ongoing annual fee. I think we can make it work.”

The Indian River School District will join the Caesar Rodney School District with this GPS initiative.

“Caesar Rodney School District is the only one in the state that has this technology. Brandywine is moving forward with it right now,” said Mr. Tidwell. “We would be the only school district in Sussex County that has this technology.”

IRSD Superintendent Dr. Jay Owens said the new bus GPS system “is quite impressive, and I think it kind of helps to move us into where we need to go in terms (of) the Transportation Department and the availability to track our buses and for parents and families to have the ability to see where their students are and where their buses are.”

For families, the WheresTheBus component offers a secure system. To create an account and access, parents or guardians must have a child’s birthdate and student ID number. If the information entered does not match the VEO student data, the parent will not be able to create an account.

The combo reader-tablet systems utilize barcode elements that students slide under a reader as they board and depart the bus. The school district will provide the barcodes.

“It logs within the system; that student is now on the bus, and when they get off, they scan, and they walk off. We know when they are off the bus,” Mr. Tidwell said. “As we learned with COVID, we have learned that we need to know where our students are and how long they spend time on the bus.”

Should a student get off at the wrong stop, an error message is triggered, which tells where he or she is supposed to disembark.

“If they are not on that bus, it will tell you ‘Wrong Route,’” Mr. Tidwell said. “Sometimes, we have substitute bus drivers. Sometimes, we have drivers driving different buses for different contractors. This helps alert the drivers. It’s a protection piece for everyone.”

All this technology and equipment will be property of the school district.

Efforts are for the system to be installed as quickly as possible, Mr. Tidwell said.

“I appreciate the initiative that you have taken on this project,” said IRSD board member Dr. Heather Statler. “It is really impressive.”