More buses on the road means more need for route oversight. With approximately 153 buses running on more than 120 routes, the Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township (MSD Wayne) has strived to stay on the cutting-edge of transportation management and planning technology.
As one of 11 public school districts in Marion County, Indiana, MSD Wayne’s transportation service area covers 37.5 square miles. For efficiency, the district operates buses on a three-tiered system. Tier 1 serves elementary school students; Tier 2 serves mostly high school students with some elementary schools; and Tier 3 includes an Early College high school, two middle-school centers, and alternative schools. Specialty routes exist for students with disabilities as well as McKinney-Vento students. This tiered approach also helps MSD Wayne’s drivers to have more consistent scheduling and longer workdays.
Notably, MSD Wayne does not have any walk zones to its schools.
“This is an important distinction, primarily because the city has not put sufficient infrastructure in our community for safe walk zones for our students,” said Dr. Jeff Butts, MSD Wayne’s superintendent. “And so we transport all our students who want transportation, with a few minor exceptions. We aim for more centralized bus stops for students so that we can maximize our pick-ups and reduce our travel time as we’re running our routes.”
Technology Steps Up
When MSD Wayne was looking for a routing solution, the main factors in the district’s decision were user-friendliness and flexibility.
“We needed a solution that we could easily adjust on a route-by-route basis,” Butts said. “In a community where 50 percent of properties are rentals – and where a significant number of our students have either a single parent or two parents working – it’s not uncommon for kids to have one pick-up location and a different drop-off location. We wanted our system to be nimble to accommodate that.”
The district also needed to be able to upload real-time data into the routing system, Butts said, so that drivers are instantly aware of changes as they occur. Finally, MSD Wayne wanted parents to have the opportunity to determine real-time bus location. Because the district uses centralized bus stops, it is important that parents know when to send their children out – especially in inclement weather.
“When the weather gets rough, our buses can run a bit behind schedule because everyone – buses and passenger vehicles – are taking greater precautions, and slowing the traffic flow,” Butts said. “That flexibility and real-time information was so important to us when we were looking at new routing solutions.”
Ultimately, the district selected Transfinder – utilizing Routefinder PLUS for routing, Infofinder i for parent information, and Transfinder’s hosting services.
Routefinder PLUS is the latest version of Transfinder’s signature, browser-based routing solution. Its intuitive design allows for fast, safe, and smart route creation, and allows districts to control routes and maps to plot the safest trips with real-time information.
Routefinder PLUS provided the precise level of flexibility that MSD Wayne sought in a new solution, Butts said.
“We, like many transportation departments, plan our bus routes during the summer – not knowing exactly who’s going to be riding and who’s not,” he said. “So initially we route based on the number of eligible riders, then we modify the routes after a week or two of the school year.”
Infofinder i is a Web-based service from Transfinder, seamlessly integrated into the MSD Wayne website, allowing the district to quickly and simply provide route and stop information to families.
“Transfinder has created such an easy way for me to be able to go in through Infofinder i and find out who should be at which stop, and where their location is relative to that stop,” Butts continued. “Parents can see precise bus location as well. That’s a phenomenal feature for our families, when they can determine the pick-up and drop off time down to the minute.”
System integration was another contributing factor in Transfinder’s fit for MSD Wayne. The district is able to use other technology vendors which communicate with the Transfinder system and allow disparate data sets to run through Routefinder PLUS.
Butts said that, for example, the district is planning to introduce a new GPS navigation system to its vehicles. The GPS, while not a Transfinder product, will interact directly with MSD Wayne’s routing software – allowing substitute drivers to have audible stop-by-stop directions for easier driving.
Getting a Seat at the Table
Butts said that the transportation department was critical in selecting the routing and parent info solutions, as well as with many other purchases and acquisitions by MSD Wayne.
“We are very intentional about making sure our transportation staff is with us when we’re looking at purchasing fuel, new buses, and new transportation solutions,” he said. “If we buy a new bus, we want to hear from drivers and transportation staff about how it compares in comfort, workspace, rideability, and more.”
From his standpoint as a superintendent, Butts finds the transportation director’s proximity to be invaluable in these matters. Whether it is concerns from the department, or long-term transportation planning, a good transportation director is the person that communicates this information to the superintendent and school board.
“We schedule an opportunity for our board to visit the transportation center each year, to talk to drivers, mechanics, and administration,” he said. “We need to hear updates about transportation, the issues with which they’re dealing, and their staffing needs.”
Like districts across America, MSD Wayne is seeing effects from the nationwide driver shortage. This has caused Butts to pay special attention to the department and its drivers, to bring as much spotlight to transportation as possible.
“It’s not a one-off, and it’s not something that we discuss in a silo,” he said. “I often share with our drivers that they are a critical piece in our success because they’re the first people to see our children in the morning. They’re the last people to wish our children well when they’re departing school and arriving home.”
“Without them transporting kids safely to and from school each day, nobody else in this district has a job,” he continued.
When it comes to getting a seat at the “table,” Butts advises transportation directors and superintendents to practice intentional engagement. Have the transportation staff present at administrative meetings, principal meetings, and assistant principal meetings, he said, and stay involved in the ongoing district-wide discourse.
“I believe in the value of transportation, and how critical it is to our success,” Butts said. “They need a seat at the table so we can provide them with the best routing solutions, equipment, drivers, and mechanics as possible.”