Tomball ISD says StopFinder rollout problems have eased after training and technical fixes

At the Sept. 9 Tomball ISD Board of Trustees meeting, Chief Operating Officer Dr. Gutierrez gave a detailed update on the district’s rollout of StopFinder, the district’s new parent-facing bus-tracking and routing interface, saying the district has taken multiple technical and operational steps and that “we do extend our sincere apology” to families who experienced problems during the start of the school year.

Why it matters: The StopFinder rollout affected daily transport for more than 10,000 students and generated thousands of parent contacts in a short period. Accurate tracking and timely alerts are central to parent confidence in the district’s transportation service.

Dr. Gutierrez and Director of Transportation Services Sandy Dillman described a mix of causes for the problems — change-management, driver log‑in errors, cellular-connectivity gaps and parent setup of the app — and outlined fixes implemented in the first weeks of school. The district said it deployed hardware on a pilot fleet (22 general‑education buses and seven special‑education buses), ran a summer pilot with about 600–650 riders, hosted face‑to‑face trainings with StopFinder trainers, ran driver ride‑alongs, created short…