FORT MADISON - The Fort Madison Community School District board approved replacing their current bus tracking with a new system at Wednesday's regular board meeting.
The Crosswalk K-12 complete solution package for student transportation by UniteGPS, was presented by Richard Hand, the district's Director of Transportation.
“I think it's going up this year, like $34,600 a year.. This new one's 16,200 a year here.
So we're cutting it in half. It has everything the other one has, plus some,” said Hand.
Hand said aside from the price difference, the previous system they implemented a couple of years ago didn’t meet technological expectations and logging students in and out was difficult.
The package includes adding mounted tablets for routing and students to swipe so the district knows when and where a student gets on and off the bus, GPS trackers on every bus, student ridership tracking with photos, and an app for parents including bus routes and safety inspections.
“At every stop, it automatically brings the names up with a picture, so we know that student belongs on the bus,” said Hand.
Another upgrade is the new system supports the student IDs' barcode scanner. The current student transportation tracking system only supports QR codes and this will allow the use of one student ID card for all actions.
The initial set up and equipment cost is $52,000, $16.3 thousand for annual subscription and SIS integration, totaling $69,119.75 the first year investment. Integration of equipment would start for the 2026-2027 year, coming out of next year’s budget.
“I just think it’s gonna be a lot better for drivers,” Hand concluded.
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