Dear Schuylerville families,
Beginning on Sept. 7, the first day of the 2023-24 school year, all large school buses will be equipped with Tyler Drive Tablets. This initiative is being funded by the federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER) grant. The tablets will be mounted in the buses and provide live GPS, as well as student ridership information to the district’s transportation department. The tablets will do the following for all bus routes:
- Provide turn by turn directions for bus drivers
- Re-route drivers if needed (just like a GPS)
- Provide notifications to bus drivers about where each bus stop is (this will be particularly helpful for substitute bus drivers)
- Allow students to swipe a badge as they enter and exit the bus
Ride 360 App
Parents will be able to download an app called Ride 360, giving them access to their child’s bus number, name of the bus driver, and the expected bus arrival time based on the GPS data (for both morning and afternoon runs.) Each student can have two parents/guardians sign up for the app, but parents/guardians can share their login information with others (i.e. grandparents, caregivers, etc.) In regard to safety/custody issues: the transportation department will have access to manage users who have access to the app if a situation arises. Click here for detailed instructions on how to download the app.
2023-24 Bus Route Information
Physical mailings with bus information will be sent out for one more year. This year’s mailings will be received by families by Aug. 28. In addition, 2023-24 bus route information will be available on the Ride 360 app on Aug. 28. Parents/guardians will need their student’s ID in order to login; student IDs will be in bold, at the top of the mailing. The district encourages all parents to download the app, as it will be the sole way to receive bus information for the following school year (2024-25.)
Swipe cards
Each student will be issued a swipe card with a RFID chip in mid-September; the swipe cards will be the student’s responsibility. The district will send a notification to families when the swipe cards have been sent home to ensure they become a regular part of students’ daily routines.
New transportation email
A new, general email address has been created for the district’s transportation department and will be monitored by Transportation Supervisor Chuck Barss, as well as the department’s dispatcher. General inquiries can be sent to transportation@schuylerville.org, and specific concerns to Transportation Supervisor Chuck Barss at barssc@schuylerville.org.
We look forward to this new initiative and the benefits it will have for district families and students! Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions.
Sincerely,
Chuck Barss
Transportation Supervisor