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District outlines bus-tracking pilot using RFID badges and parent app
Summary
District transportation staff described a MyRide K‑12 pilot that uses GPS and RFID badges to track student boarding and provide parents real-time bus information; trustees pressed staff for detailed cost, privacy and replacement-badge plans.
District transportation staff presented MyRide K‑12, a GPS- and RFID-based system the district intends to pilot at a small number of elementary schools before expanding to middle and high schools.
The presenter described core functions: RFID readers that allow students to swipe on and off buses, a mobile app for parents showing estimated arrival times and bus paths, and back-end routing that the district already uses for assignments. Implementation details include issuing ID cards to students, distributing badges via drivers, and communication through letters and the district website.
Board members asked how the system will be paid for, whether costs will be passed to families, and what security protections exist if badges are lost. The presenter said the hardware and software were purchased years earlier, estimated annual maintenance in the tens of thousands of dollars, and acknowledged replacement RFID badges are more expensive than school barcode IDs; he committed to producing precise cost figures for the board.
Trustees also raised safety and privacy concerns. One trustee warned that lost badges could enable third parties to locate children and pressed district staff for guardrails; the presenter said driver compliance, badge replacement logistics and equipment malfunctions remain operational challenges to be managed during the pilot.
The board asked for a written cost history and an implementation timeline before wider rollout.
Representative quote from the presentation: "MyRide k 12 is a feature that's in part of our software program on transportation... it uses RFID readers to swipe kids on and off the buses and provides a record of who's on our buses."
