In February, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) announced its commitment to replace 326 of its diesel school buses with electric school buses over the next four years. School BUSRide spoke with Todd Watkins, the MCPS director of transportation, about this exciting development and the thought processes behind it. How did all of this come together? […]
Barry Sudduth is the immediate past president of the National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT) and current executive director of transportation for Stafford County Public Schools (https://www.staffordschools.net/) in Virginia. He also serves as the chair of NAPT’s Professional Growth Committee. Sudduth has served as executive director for the past eight years and prior to his […]
Colorado has some of the most stringent state and district-specific compliance requirements for student transportation in the country. Colorado districts serve students with special needs, students who fall under the McKinney-Vento Act, medically-fragile kids, and foster youth – and many districts take advantage of the state’s numerous specialty schools for these students. Twenty-three of the […]
School BUSRide spoke with Chad Carpenter, director of pupil transportation for the state of Alabama, about the most pressing issues in his state; how the Alabama Department of Education responded to 2020’s challenges, and his thoughts regarding the best path forward. What are the most pressing issues facing student transportation in Alabama? Driver shortage is […]
School BUSRide recently spoke with Charlie Hood, executive director of the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services (NASDPTS). Hood will retire in March after a career spanning almost 40 years. How did you first get into the school bus and school transportation industry? I started out in education, having graduated from Florida […]
By Tim Ammon and Tom Platt The turning of the calendar means that we are all getting settled into a new year and, in this year, a new presidential administration. While it seems unlikely that, to turn a phrase, the new boss will be the same as the old boss, a core set of challenges […]
By Daniel Thompson School buses are largely safe – but until every single child gets to school and back unharmed, we have to keep innovating. Nearly 15 students die each year in school transportation-related incidents in the U.S., with about five of those fatalities caused by passing motorists, according to The National Association for Pupil […]
School BUSRide spoke with Kevin Moore, CEO of SOBRsafe™, about touch-based alcohol detection and the difference it can make for school transportation Kevin Moore, Chief Executive Officer, said that for he and SOBRsafe™, child safety represents a chance to make a societal difference with breakthrough technology. Originally formed by venture capital firm First Capital Ventures, […]
CalAmp, a global technology solutions pioneer transforming the mobile connected economy, and its subsidiary Synovia Solutions, introduced Bus Guardian in summer 2020, a suite of digital solutions designed to help schools more safely and confidently return students to their classrooms. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has made contact tracing one of the government’s […]
This month, the National Association for Pupil Transportation (NAPT) co-launched an educational streaming service with the Center for Effective School Operations’ (CESO) RethinkEDU platform – NAPT ACTS! School BUSRide spoke with Lance Libengood, president, and Luke Frederick , director of innovation, of CESO about the new service, its aim to put NAPT members back in […]