Gone are the days of waiting 15 minutes or more in frigid cold for a school bus to round the corner.
With the Rockwood School District’s newest app, Here Comes the Bus, Transportation Director Mike Heyman said parents will know exactly when to send their children to the bus stop.
“You don’t want to miss the bus, but you don’t want to be out there longer than you have to,” Heyman said. “(The app) takes the guesswork out. We’re hoping this will be a big plus for everybody.”
Heyman said the app was tested among a group of staff members in the fall and is ready to debut in one of the district’s four quadrants for a larger trial run soon. After any kinks or bugs are worked out, he said the app will be made available for parents districtwide.
On Jan. 30, Heyman said the district has not selected the area for the larger trial run, but said the app will most likely be made available in February in the chosen area.
Rockwood’s four quadrants match the high schools – Eureka, Lafayette in the Wildwood area, Marquette in the Chesterfield and Ballwin areas and Rockwood Summit in the Fenton area.
“I fully expect it to be rolled out (for the entire district) by the end of this (school) year,” Heyman said. “Hopefully not too far in the future. I’m ready to flip the switch.”
Brenda Kirchhoefer, coordinator of purchasing for Rockwood, said the district plans to implement more features for bus safety in the future.
Kirchhoefer said the app costs the district $2 per bus per month, totaling $3,120 a year. The app is free for parents to download.
CalAmp, the developer of the app, also offers student ridership validation technology, dashcam monitoring and GPS hardware and software.
She said the district will pay $120,042 annually, or $76.95 per bus, for all CalAmp services.
“We are still implementing the student ridership and Here Comes the Bus modules, but ultimately the plan is to use all the CalAmp products,” Kirchhoefer said.
How it works
Heyman said the Here Comes the Bus app will alert the user that their child’s bus is about one to two minutes away from the bus stop. When parents register on the app, they can modify a geofence around their home.
A geofence is a virtual boundary placed on a physical location using GPS or radio signals that triggers an alert on a mobile device. An example of a commonly used geofence would be a business sending notifications to potential customers’ mobile devices when they walk by its storefront.
The student’s bus triggers the alert on the app when it passes through the geofence barrier. Heyman said while the technology sounds complicated, registering through the app is simple.
“I don’t think it’s too complicated to set up,” he said. “I was able to set it up during the trial, and it was no big deal. If I can do it, anyone can do it.”
Heyman said the app user will only receive notifications for his or her child’s bus, not every bus that may pass through the geofence barrier.
Heyman said the app will be beneficial for families and the transportation department. He believes the app will reduce delays on bus routes, especially delays caused by a driver waiting for a student who may be late to the stop.
“One thing I see as being a big benefit for the transportation department would be fewer phone calls coming in here,” he said. “When is the bus coming? When is it going to be here? With the geofence, you’ll know exactly when the bus will get there.”
Chief Financial Officer Cyndee Byous said the district expects some limitations with the app. She said some areas of the district that have poor cell phone coverage may experience problems with the app’s GPS functions.
“As we pilot the app, we will need to consider the reliability and timeliness of the information it is able to provide to our families,” Byous said.
More information to come
Heyman said parents will most likely receive flyers and emails about the app from the district this month.
“I would really be a fool to think it’s going to go off with no hitches,” Heyman said. “We wanted to make sure that everything was running properly, and all indications right now are that everything’s up and running and everything looks good.”
Heyman said families do not have to use the app to get bus information.
For information on bus routes, parents may log in to their child’s eLink Transportation System account via the district’s website. They may also call the Transportation Department at 636-733-8500.
“I think (the app) will be well-received,” Heyman said. “But parents don’t have to sign up for it if they don’t want to. Everyone has their own needs. It seems like this day and age, we’re all getting more emails than we care to, more text messages than we care to.”