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Round Lake CUSD 116 reviews new routing software, parent app outage and proposes bus eligibility change for Round Lake Middle
Summary
Round Lake Area Schools officials reported progress deploying Traversa routing software and the MyRide K12 parent app, resolved most staffing gaps and submitted a safety‑hazard form to IDOT that would add about 200 Round Lake Middle students to bus eligibility if approved.
Round Lake Area Schools officials gave the board a detailed progress report on a new districtwide routing system and parent mobile app, steps taken to stabilize staffing and training, and a pending safety‑hazard request to extend busing to students who currently cross Rollins Road to reach Round Lake Middle School.
Director of Transportation Luis Garcia said the district implemented Traversa routing software and the MyRide K12 parent app this school year and is already using GPS, student ID scan‑on/scan‑off and automated reporting to troubleshoot routes. Garcia told the board the district has encountered startup issues — including a parent‑app outage tied to an Amazon Web Services incident — but that the vendor has modified daily arrival/departure reports so staff can better identify and fix delays.
The system shows promise for improved routing oversight, Garcia said, but it has required ongoing adjustments. He reported that about 73% of bus‑eligible students have at least one profile on the parent app. The district plans to send a family satisfaction survey in about two weeks to collect user feedback.
Staffing and training
Garcia reported the transportation workforce is close to fully staffed: the department has 53 driver positions with three current vacancies and 13 new drivers hired since late July. The district has phased out subcontracted drivers and added a new trainer role to speed CDL and air‑brake endorsement training; the trainer has guided candidates through DMV testing and on‑bus practice. Two mechanics are on staff to handle preventive maintenance and cold‑weather readiness.
Walker boundaries and IDOT hazardous‑area form
Transportation staff said a migration from the district's old routing system missed some manually entered hazardous‑area records in the new software. That review prompted the district to submit a serious safety hazard form to the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) for a Rollins Road/Lotus intersection used by Round Lake Middle School students. If IDOT approves, roughly 200 students who live south of Rollins and currently cross Rollins Road would become eligible for bus service; staff said they expect IDOT action within weeks and would use existing routes and drivers to provide service if approved.
Operational and contingency work
Board members pressed staff on communications and contingencies when cloud services fail. Garcia and other staff said they sent district text notices to families during the AWS‑related outage, provided paper backup routes to drivers, and observed that scans cached on tablets sometimes synchronized once devices were rebooted. Staff promised a written contingency plan after they meet with the vendor to document whether drivers should continue scanning during outages and how dispatch should notify families and schools.
Other steps include: expanding standard operating procedures tied to the new software; creating daily arrival/departure filters that can flag buses delayed more than 10 minutes; instituting a cold‑start team and switching to a winter‑rated fuel blend for low‑temperature reliability; and scheduling a parent “transportation open house” aligned with registration cycles.
Public comment and equity note
During public comment, former student Rosabeth Carnegie urged the district to increase outreach about immigrant family rights and safety and to consider expanded busing for students who live just inside the district cutoff (she noted a classmate living 1.4 miles from the high school, near the 1.5‑mile threshold). Board members and staff acknowledged that such family safety concerns intersect with transportation policy and pointed to the pending IDOT hazardous‑area action as one way the district is addressing student safety.
What comes next
Staff said they will return to the board with the satisfaction survey results, a written outage response plan after vendor review, follow‑up on IDOT approval for the Rollins/Lotus intersection, and weekly status updates about finalized SOPs and staffing. The transportation team also plans to use the new reporting tools to present trend data (ridership, delays, route changes) once report outputs have been validated.
Speakers quoted or paraphrased in this article are district staff and a public commenter as identified below.
