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District transportation contractor reports staffing gains, safety measures and parent app adoption
Summary
STA, the district's bus contractor, reported driver retention steps, route increases, a double child‑check policy, a crisis-deescalation training rollout and a Safe Stop parent app with 14% current adoption and a 20% goal.
Jefferson City School Board members heard a midyear report from STA, the district's contracted school transportation provider, on staffing, safety upgrades and technology initiatives.
Director of Facilities Mr. Underwood introduced the vendor representative, and David Frank of STA gave the presentation. "Happy New Year to everyone. I love the restaurants in Jefferson City," Frank began, then outlined recruitment incentives and operational changes designed to improve reliability and student safety.
Frank said STA increased driver wages and offered attendance-tied sign-on bonuses to raise retention, and that hiring more monitors has reduced discipline-related bus problems. He described a "double child check" measure: drivers check buses after each tier and buses are checked again on return to the lot to guard against leaving students on board.
Frank said routes increased from 44 to 48 since the start of the school year as the company hired more drivers, easing overloaded buses and aiming to improve on-time performance. STA plans to provide the district a monthly on-time performance report.
On training and safety, Frank said STA will offer crisis-prevention and de-escalation training and has a safety supervisor assigned (Mary Earnhardt, not present at the meeting). He also described a planned bus rodeo to showcase driver skills.
Frank described a parent-facing technology called Safe Stop that informs parents when a bus is approaching their child's stop; he said current adoption is about 14% and the company aims to reach 20% adoption as a meaningful milestone. He said other upgrades include camera systems that speed delivery of video to district staff when incidents occur.
Board members asked questions and thanked the vendor for work on safety and information. No vote was taken; the presentation was informational.
