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District to pilot Pick My Kid dismissal app; board hears privacy, equity and integration questions
Summary
Dr. Pearson proposed a Pick My Kid pilot at Washington Elementary to automate car‑rider dismissal for the new large K–5 school; the vendor offered free early access May–August, a $500 onboarding fee and a $3,750 annual subscription with a three-year contract and opt‑out after year one. Board members pressed for fail‑safes for families without technology and asked about BusBoss/Busware integration.
District administrators described plans to pilot Pick My Kid, a digital dismissal‑management platform intended to automate and secure the car‑rider process as the district moves to a much larger K–5 building.
“Pick My Kid is a digital dismissal management platform,” Dr. Pearson said. He told the board the system provides real‑time updates to parents and teachers, supports mobile and desktop access, tracks dismissal changes, integrates with bus notifications and can flag custody or court orders similar to visitor‑management systems.
Dr. Pearson emphasized safety and efficiency as the driver: “It’s about safety, right? We want to make sure that we are getting the right kid in the right car in a timely manner,” he said, describing how the app can timestamp pick‑ups and send automatic parent notifications when a student is dismissed.
The vendor offered early access free from May through August and a one‑time onboarding fee of $500; annual subscription pricing quoted to the board was $3,750 per year with a three‑year contract that includes an opt‑out after the first year. Dr. Pearson said he proposed using Washington Elementary as a pilot site with a small group of families (roughly 40–60 cars for the pilot) to work out operational issues before broader deployment.
Board members asked practical questions about equity and fail‑safe procedures: what happens when a parent lacks a smartphone or cellular service, and whether non‑app users would have a paper number to present. Dr. Pearson said the system supports printed authorization sheets for those without the app and staff can manually place visitors into the queue.
Board members also raised integration questions. Administrators said the district is replacing Busware with BusBoss, a GPS‑based system, and said Pick My Kid can help notify teachers and integrate bus arrival/dismissal events so staff and parents can see when buses arrive or leave.
Administrators described the planned operational flow: students would be staged in an internal holding area (for example, the cafeteria) and staff would call students into a queue; five cars might be loaded at a time in a designated loading zone, with staff verifying identities via photos or name plates on the app. Dr. Pearson recommended a beta test at Washington and said vendor training and parent onboarding materials would support implementation.
What’s next: the Pick My Kid agreement was listed under finance items; administrators said they will bring the contract forward for approval and further detail pilot scope and implementation steps for the board to review.
