Shakopee School District to pilot StopFinder bus-tracking app for families

The Shakopee School District presented a plan to pilot StopFinder, a bus-location and notification app included in the district’s current transportation contract, with a staged rollout that begins with a staff test group in May and could expand to a districtwide launch for the 2025–26 school year.

At an April school board meeting, Bill Nazzi, the district’s director of finance, told the board the app is provided through the district’s transportation vendor at no extra cost and is intended to give parents one-way visibility of bus locations and automated late-bus notifications. Nazzi said the district will not replace existing communications for major disruptions — such as weather-related cancellations or large-scale emergencies — but expects StopFinder to reduce reliance on the district’s current manual late-notification workflow.

District communications staff described an implementation timeline that begins with an internal test group of roughly 30–40 staff members who ride district buses, followed by a summer-school trial. If both pilots succeed, the district plans a broader launch in September 2025 for families who opt in via the app. The district emphasized the app is optional and that current route and schedule information will remain available through Infinite Campus and district communications.

The presentation noted several operational items the district will still work through before wider rollout: integration with special-education transportation vendors that currently use separate providers, multilingual communications for families (the district currently publishes notices in English, Spanish, Somali, Russian and Vietnamese), and custody/visibility controls so only authorized primary guardians can see student-assigned buses. District staff said the app’s student data feed will come from Infinite Campus and that visibility updates occur every 24 hours.

Board members asked about privacy, levels of visibility and whether non-parents could access location feeds. Nazzi and Tiffany Olsen, who co-presented the item, said the system limits access to designated primary guardians and provides sharing controls (for example, a parent could temporarily share access with a caregiver). District staff also said StopFinder shows vehicle location only within defined route/time parameters and is not a continuous live-tracking feed outside route windows.

The district plans to collect feedback during the staff test and summer trials and make adjustments before a formal districtwide launch. No board vote was required for the informational presentation.