As one of the fastest growing districts in Texas, Prosper Independent School District understands the critical role that the right technology can play in safely and efficiently transporting its students. With 215 buses split between 72 general education routes and 37 special needs routes, the district’s transportation department is responsible for transporting nearly 9,000 students daily.
According to Teri Mapengo, director of transportation for the district, this volume of transportation requires an effective system to not only keep schedules on track but enable parents to feel secure about the whereabouts of their children.
“One of the district’s key advancements in recent years has been its adoption of Transfinder technology,” Mapengo said. “The parents in Prosper are huge supporters of the district, and they want to make sure that their kids are safe. Transfinder has helped make that possible.”
Thanks to her prior experience, Mapengo was already familiar with the Transfinder technology when she transferred to Prosper ISD last December.
“After my previous appointment as transportation director in another district I was introduced to the Transfinder system and I absolutely loved it,” Mapengo said. “When I heard that Prosper had Transfinder, I was so excited.”
At the time when Mapengo came on board, the Prosper transportation department was in the process of adopting Transfinder’s driver app Wayfinder and parent app Stopfinder.
“When I first came on, they had already done a lot of the research on the new systems and we ended up piloting the technology with two of our elementary schools at the end of last year,” Mapengo said. “It just showed us that this was going to be an amazing tool, not just for the parents of Prosper ISD, but also for our drivers, because the system has been a huge recruiting tool.”
The Wayfinder application not only helps to manage and complete forms like pre/post inspection but enables drivers to substitute resources, take attendance, and navigate with voice or on-screen directions. It also can help manage driver shortages, assist with resource management and ensure student safety, all from a mobile device.
“All of our active buses currently have the Wayfinder navigation on them and eventually all 167 buses will have the system,” Mapengo said. “We have also fully implemented the parent application, Stopfinder, which has been such a huge help.”
For parents, knowing that their child’s bus will arrive on time is a significant relief. Stopfinder, the parent-facing app by Transfinder, plays a crucial role in this reassurance. It allows parents to track buses in real-time and receive notifications when the bus is approaching. This proactive communication reduces the number of frantic calls to the transportation department, which can be particularly valuable during periods of high demand or staffing shortages.
“I can’t believe the number of calls that we did not have this year,” Mapengo said. “Usually within the first two weeks the transportation department is bombarded. This year was the smoothest startup I have ever had.”
With so many routes and students to manage in the coming school year, a seamless software rollout was imperative for Mapengo and her team, who made it a priority to work closely with Transfinder on training and implementation.
“I was honestly nervous about introducing such a comprehensive system because you never know how staff members are going to respond but Transfinder had a step-by-step plan, they communicated well with my team and really made sure that we were hitting all of the marks, that this was our goal,” Mapengo said. “We had someone from Transfinder on site with us for three days helping train our drivers, get the routing team set up and just be on site to assist with troubleshooting any issues we were having.”
While introducing new technology can come with challenges, Mapengo says that overall, the experience has been a huge success, and her district is looking forward to what comes next.
There is still room for improvement and that is the great thing about this system,” Mapengo said. “We are still exploring all the available features because with Transfinder’s Stopfinder and Wayfinder, there are so many more avenues to look into and that keeps us looking forward.”
To learn more about Transfinder’s solutions, visit Transfinder.com, call
800-373-3609 or email getplus@transfinder.com