Warsaw Schools Gradually Implementing Student Tracking On Buses
October 17, 2018 at 4:40 p.m.
Warsaw Schools Gradually Implementing Student Tracking On Buses
By David [email protected]
At the Warsaw School Board public work session Tuesday afternoon, Transportation Director Mark Fick told board members that he gave Assistant Director Brandon Swindell a timeline for getting student IDs finished. IDs will be scanned when students get on and off buses. The IDs will first be used at Claypool Elementary in early November. Fick said he wants to go slow and gradually include all buses for every school.
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“We’ll basically be able to identify the students, be able for them to swipe their cards when they come on the bus and be able to track them with live time. Where the student is, where they’re at so we don’t get the calls of ‘Where’s my kid at?’” he said.
Board member Dan Metzger asked if parents will have access to that information. Fick said yes, but it will be real time for the transportation department so it knows where students are.
Heather Reichenbach, board president, asked if there will be an app for parents. Fick said eventually, and that the board was welcome to attend a meeting Thursday morning at the transportation office to learn all the details and see a demonstration.
“Basically, what it is, when a student gets on the bus to the time they get to the school, we can track where the student’s at. So there’s no more parent can’t find the student,” Fick said.
Board member Randy Polston asked if the students would be tracked during the school day as well. Fick responded they could be tracked from anytime they got on a school bus to the time they got off. Metzger clarified that what was being tracked was who got on and off the school buses, not the actual students themselves, and Fick said that was right.
“They’re working on if it’s a total swipeness or if they walk by. We’re trying to work out the tag,” Fick said.
Chief Technology Officer Brad Hagg said there’s no tracking capabilities of students, it was just who got on and off the buses. He also said the school corporation was trying to go with just one ID.
“Instead of students having to carry multiple IDs, they already have IDs at the high school and middle schools and they have bar codes on them, so all we have to do is print bar codes on (Fick’s) ID cards and then they can use them as ID for everything,” Hagg said.
Fick said they were starting at Claypool because “they have a lot of students, but they’re so dispersed that I don’t have seven kids at one spot. Because that’s an issue we’re trying to work out as far as, you put seven kids in a line trying to get them through the scan and we’re running into a problem. We’re trying to identify the best way to have the student with the ID because we don’t want to have multiple IDs.”
At Thursday’s meeting, he said his and Hagg’s departments, along with Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert, will try to work out the details. Fick said they have the IDs but they weren’t cheap when they were purchased “a while back” so they don’t want them to be lost either.
Fick said he and Hoffert don’t get a lot of calls from parents anymore, as far as them not being able to find their students.
“Our complaints are down to nothing,” he said.
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At the Warsaw School Board public work session Tuesday afternoon, Transportation Director Mark Fick told board members that he gave Assistant Director Brandon Swindell a timeline for getting student IDs finished. IDs will be scanned when students get on and off buses. The IDs will first be used at Claypool Elementary in early November. Fick said he wants to go slow and gradually include all buses for every school.
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“We’ll basically be able to identify the students, be able for them to swipe their cards when they come on the bus and be able to track them with live time. Where the student is, where they’re at so we don’t get the calls of ‘Where’s my kid at?’” he said.
Board member Dan Metzger asked if parents will have access to that information. Fick said yes, but it will be real time for the transportation department so it knows where students are.
Heather Reichenbach, board president, asked if there will be an app for parents. Fick said eventually, and that the board was welcome to attend a meeting Thursday morning at the transportation office to learn all the details and see a demonstration.
“Basically, what it is, when a student gets on the bus to the time they get to the school, we can track where the student’s at. So there’s no more parent can’t find the student,” Fick said.
Board member Randy Polston asked if the students would be tracked during the school day as well. Fick responded they could be tracked from anytime they got on a school bus to the time they got off. Metzger clarified that what was being tracked was who got on and off the school buses, not the actual students themselves, and Fick said that was right.
“They’re working on if it’s a total swipeness or if they walk by. We’re trying to work out the tag,” Fick said.
Chief Technology Officer Brad Hagg said there’s no tracking capabilities of students, it was just who got on and off the buses. He also said the school corporation was trying to go with just one ID.
“Instead of students having to carry multiple IDs, they already have IDs at the high school and middle schools and they have bar codes on them, so all we have to do is print bar codes on (Fick’s) ID cards and then they can use them as ID for everything,” Hagg said.
Fick said they were starting at Claypool because “they have a lot of students, but they’re so dispersed that I don’t have seven kids at one spot. Because that’s an issue we’re trying to work out as far as, you put seven kids in a line trying to get them through the scan and we’re running into a problem. We’re trying to identify the best way to have the student with the ID because we don’t want to have multiple IDs.”
At Thursday’s meeting, he said his and Hagg’s departments, along with Superintendent Dr. David Hoffert, will try to work out the details. Fick said they have the IDs but they weren’t cheap when they were purchased “a while back” so they don’t want them to be lost either.
Fick said he and Hoffert don’t get a lot of calls from parents anymore, as far as them not being able to find their students.
“Our complaints are down to nothing,” he said.
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