Josh Nease never imagined that pen and paper could feel like an artifact of the past, but in his 24th year in transportation, it did.
During his career in transportation, he would go through “a lot of forms, one at a time” and receive “a lot of input from the drivers,” he recalled.
“They would sit down with us and go over their routes and we’d make adjustments,” Nease said.
For years, it worked well enough, but “well enough” had begun to fray at the edges.
This year marked a turning point at Pleasant Local School District: a bold leap from analog to digital. A new routing software – something the district had flirted with for years but never quite embraced—was now fully implemented.
Pleasant Local School District is located in Marion, Ohio, a city of about 36,000 located about 50 miles north of Columbus. The district has 1,300 students and transports 700 of them via a two-tier system. Nease had inherited the role of Transportation Supervisor from Tom Haley, his predecessor of 15 years. It was Haley who had planted the seeds of change.
“We’d been talking about doing something like this for two or three years,” Nease said. “We just couldn’t find something that was really the right fit for what we needed that we could afford in our budget.”
It wasn’t until a new superintendent, Tom McDonald, entered the scene that those seeds began to sprout. McDonald, who had come from a larger district equipped with routing software, quickly recognized inefficiencies. Personally overhearing dispatchers and staff converse over the radio to determine routes and stops for students, McDonald was even more on board to find a software solution.
The district looked at three or so companies before deciding Transfinder was the best choice.
“The others didn’t seem to flow,” Nease said. “The ease of use just didn’t seem to be there.” Helping to confirm the decision was the fact that several neighboring districts were happy Transfinder clients.
By the time Nease officially took the reins, the plan was already in motion. Last year his team spent time training, building, and beta-testing Transfinder’s award-winning Routefinder PLUS routing system. Now, for the first time, they had a tool that could streamline transportation for the district’s 1,300 students, about 700 of whom relied on the buses daily.
Beyond Routefinder PLUS, the district added Transfinder’s award-winning Stopfinder parent app and Viewfinder, a tool to monitor day-to-day operations and access student ridership information, such as student bus information.
As Nease settled into the new system, the changes were immediate. The 2024-2025 school year was the first school year utilizing the Transfinder technology.
“It’s given the buildings easier access to things. They’re not constantly calling over to the garage for bus stop information,” he said. “The secretaries can get on and look at it. It’s been very, very helpful.”
Routefinder PLUS led to one smoothest openings in recent memory.
“It’s just made things run a lot smoother than they did in the past,” Nease said.
Christopher Faust said, “Do what you can,” The words Christopher Faust lives by everyday are, “Do what you can.” He started his career in transportation through the public transit industry with the City of Sheboygan, Shoreline Metro. He explained that Sheboygan Area School District has parented with the Shoreline Metro since 2018 to provide free transportation for all students and staff, and the transit agency transports many students who are not eligible for yellow bus transportation.
Christopher Faust’s Rising Star nomination said he is committed to furthering student safety.
Faust noted that he started as a transit coordinator with Shoreline Metro before accepting the transportation supervisor position with the Sheboygan Area School District in June of 2022. Two years later, his title was changed to coordinator of transportation.
“Chris is a highly dedicated, driven and success-oriented individual,” Derek Muench, director of transit and parking for the City of Sheboygan, wrote in his nomination. “He genuinely cares for students, families and customers. He is focused on making services more reliable, safer and easier to use. He has demonstrated this during his tenure with SASD and will continue to demonstrate and progress this mission in the years ahead. He is definitely a superstar and rising star and deserves the recognition.”
Muench added that Faust remains a part-time transit coordinator for Shoreline Metro. “He dispatches and coordinates transit services, including service for students utilizing public transit,” he continued. “Chris is an instrumental link between the Sheboygan Area School District and Shoreline Metro, which has an agreement to provide free student and staff transportation on the public transit system.”
Faust said his day-to-day goal during the school year is to be an engaged partner between their school bus contractor Prigge School Bus Service (a contract that’s been in place since 1970), the schools, administration and parents, while ensuring a seamless transportation experience. He added that his day consists of following up on student behaviors on the bus and patterning with principals when incidents arise.
Each year, School Transportation News chooses 10 Rising Stars based on nominations submitted by school districts and companies around the industry. These individuals have shown exemplary commitment and dedication in the student transportation industry and continue to demonstrate innovation in their roles. This year’s Rising Stars are featured in the November magazine issue.
One of those principals, Kathryn McKillip, nominated him for the award. “Christopher has been an invaluable member of our team over the past year at Sheboygan Area School District,” she wrote. “Christopher has played a crucial role in reshaping student transportation within our district and has significantly improved our relations with our contractor and families.”
She noted that during challenging times with the school bus driver shortage and long bus ride times, Faust’s “dedication and innovative thinking have been instrumental in enhancing the technology aspect of student transportation,” she continued.
Taking on Technology
Faust said when he first came to Sheboygan Area School District, school buses were equipped with little technology. He said cameras were installed for the time in 2017, but by 2022 it was clear that the systems were outdated.
“Technology changes were needed and that was clearly defined as a goal for transportation,” Faust said. “We felt that it was critical to take advantage of some of these technology solutions for safety, efficiency, and a better driver experience.”
The first change, he said, was to implement GPS on all buses to be able to know where buses were and when they would arrive at their destination. “Within weeks of that being implemented we realized what [a] game changer that was for us and our contractor,” he said. “To go back and confirm that the drivers were making their stops and waited for students that were not present changed the conversation when calls and emails would come in saying that the bus never came.”
He said that being able to validate those instances, that drivers were doing their job, alleviated the push back from drivers on the GPS systems. As they, too, saw the value in the technology.
After implementing GPS, Faust said the district launched parent app Stopfinder through their routing software, Transfinder. “Stopfinder has been an amazing resource for our parents and is another great product that Transfinder offers,” he said.
Zach Moren, sales engineer at Transfinder who submitted a Rising Star nomination, said Faust is always dedicated in finding ways to improve student transportation and safety.
The district’s latest tech adoption has been school bus Wi-Fi. He said Sheboygan Area School District applied for and received the first round of E-Rate funding for school bus Wi-Fi hotpots. Installation took place in August and service went live at the first day of school.
“Over the past year, Mr. Faust has positively restructured the district’s student transportation while improving the relationship with our contractor,” Clarissa Ramos, principal and mentorship coordinator at the district wrote in her nomination of Faust. “I have witnessed better communication and effective partnerships with principals and administration. Technology-wise GPS has been added on all buses, a parent app with live bus tracking. The SASD application for the FCC E-Rate Bus WI-FI was approved. … This is a huge win for our district the goal is to have reduced unwanted behaviors on the bus.”
Next for technology, Faust said the district is installing driver tablets with Transfinder’s Wayfinder, with the first one going live in October. “I’m very excited about that! Lastly next summer we will be upgrading our camera system on all bus to enhance safety and security,” he added. “We are looking at a camera that [we] will be able to view live and has a wide angle lens that we are able to see into the seats on the bus.”
City of Sheboygan’s Muench said Faust is focused on addressing the school bus driver shortage by implementing strategies that make the job more efficient and safer for drivers. “He is hopeful these changes as well as more forthcoming will lead to reliable staffing, more accountability by students and safer operations,” he wrote. “He is also focused on the parent experience giving them the opportunity to interact with school bus service and trust transportation is safe and reliable.”
Principal McKillip added that his technology implementations have not only transformed the school bus into an extension of the classroom but hold the promise of reducing behavioral issues which will create a more conducive learning environment.
“Christoper is so dedicated to our students, he will drive routes on top of all his other job duties, just to ensure they are able to get to school and engage in learning,” she wrote.
Faust confirmed that he drives part-time for their contractor. Like most, Faust said his ongoing challenge has been navigating the school bus driver shortage. “We simply don’t have enough drivers to cover all routes and get our students to and from school within the time frames we would like,” he said, adding they have tired advertising on social media, via direct mailings, billboards, the school district newsletter and even incentivizing coaches to obtain their CDL’s.
Going Forward
Christopher Faust says he looks to continue to support student success, potentially as a transportation director one day.
Faust said his favorite part of his job is knowing that he’s contributing to student success. “Making sure by what I am doing that they are getting to and from safely, that is the most important to me,” he said.
He noted that at some point in his professional career, he would like to become a director of transportation for a district that runs their own buses. “The goals I have within my current role are to keep incorporating technology into transportation, as well as using it to improve processes and procedures,” he said. “Five years from now I want the Sheboygan Area School District to be known with[in] the state of Wisconsin as a leader with technology on our buses.”
He noted that while the profession is difficult and has many challenges, it’s rewarding. “I wish more people could experience it in one [way] or another,” he said. “When I get the opportunity to be behind the wheel of a bus, it’s like everything I do comes full circle, and I appreciate what drivers do day in and day out so much more.”
Outside of work, Faust said he spends time with his two boys, 5 and 8, both who have special needs. He also has a 10-month-old daughter.
John Daniels, vice president of marketing at Transfinder, talked with Tony Corpin at the 2024 Transporting Students with Disabilities and Special Needs (TSD) Conference about how Transfinder’s technology offerings can help streamline operations for student transporters, specifically when transporting students with special needs.
FRISCO, Texas – A TSD Conference audience joined a panel of four experienced female transportation managers in discussng aspects of routing technology usage that can benefit students, parents and transportation staff.
The Sunday panel was comprised of clients of presenter Transfinder and was moderated by Arnold Byrd, the company’s sales enablement specialist.
Lisa Sawyer, transportation coordinator for Tracy Unified School District in central California, has over 90 school buses and 100 staff members. When she started, the department had about 30 buses and routing was done with Excel spreadsheets. While her current solutions of Transfinder and Zonar aren’t the cheapest, she said they provide the best value and usefulness.
“For me, the hardest part was getting the district to realize they HAD a transportation department,” she said, eliciting a roomful of cheers. Prioritizing student safety and collaborating with special education departments helps ensure students with special needs are provided the transportation service they need and are legally required to have.
LoWanda Bowman-Brown, transportation director for City Schools of Decatur in Georgia for the past 11 years, said that paper route sheets had proved inadequate while a technology company they recruited had struggled with modifying technology to fit the smaller district’s needs.
She advised districts to pick what software best fits their unique needs and have the IT team involved the whole way.
“We’re going to need technology but we’re also going to need people.”
LoWanda Bowman-Brown, Transportation Director, City Schools of Decatur (Ga.)
Annette “Kecia” Ling, transportation director at Savannah-Chatham County Public School System in Georgia, oversees 460 school buses serving over 20,000 students. She said she looked for a solution that her staff and parents would be comfortable with and praised Transfinder’s ability to reduce the time spent on routing.
She noted that going away from paper route sheets which could get wet or damaged along the way made it easier for drivers and, by extension, transportation administration. Technology also helps drivers complete tiered routes, she noted, or quickly take over a substitute route in a pinch. For students with special needs, which the district calls “extraordinary students,” it makes their pertinent information readily available for the driver and attendant.
Sandy Dillman, director of transportation for Tomball Independent School District in Texas, leads 200 drivers and attendants who transport 13,000 students daily. She sad that when she started, the internet didn’t really exist and written paper routes caused confusion. She reviewed the districts of various sizes that she’d worked with over her decades in the industry and underscored that preemptive parent communication is essential to remove burdens from transportation’s daily load.
With school bus technology, “everything is at your fingertips and ready to go where it needs to go,” she said.
Crowdsourcing Advice
A Kansas school bus driver trainer in the audience noted that integration is important so a parent can sign their student up as a bus rider and transportation can easily add them onto a route.
In answer to an attendee question about information sharing to drivers and aides, Ling shared that such information is controlled on the Transfinder side so drivers can only see what they need to know on their tablets.
Sawyer added that notes can be added on student triggers or behaviors that drivers and aides should be aware of. Byrd with Transfinder noted that symbols can be used as such notations instead of labels.
Sometimes technology is required to meet district administrative goals, as was the case for Bowman-Brown in Decatur. Ling advised coming up with a technology implementation process that worked for everyone who needed to be in contact with it.
“Teamwork is the secret sauce that allows common leaders the ability to accomplish unrealistic expectations and achieve uncommon goals in uncommon circumstances.”
– Annette “Kecia” Ling, Transportation Director, Savannah-Chatham County Public School System (Ga.)
Dillman praised the peace of mind that comes for both transportation staff and parents in knowing where each student is at any given time. Rather than getting a panicked “we lost a kid” call, staff can be notified of a student who didn’t scan off the bus and easily look up that student’s daily scan details.
Attendee Steven Fernandez, who is director of transportation for Modesto City Schools in California and has 40 years of experience in student transportation, reviewed his progression from handwritten paper route sheets to Excel spreadsheets, and finally to Transfinder’s electronic records and routing. He shared that previously new students were inconsistently added to whatever driver’s route was convenient, but now they are added to the best-fitting and most efficient route.
Another attendee shared that with just two routers she is able to leverage technology to handle all routing needs, readily assign a student to a bus, or easily locate a missing student. “It’s priceless to have that technology,” she stated.
“It’s a game changer,” agreed Bowman-Brown.
The panelists noted that electronic record-keeping, data sorting and report creating helps speed the state reporting process up, reduces human errors, and provides peace of mind. Ling added that they greatly assist emergency responders as well.
Ling also shared how she uses smart routing to add extraordinary students to general education routes, with an attendant if necessary, to better assist their developmental and social goals, as well as achieve better operational efficiency.
Transfinder provides this “very valuable data at the click of a button,” she stated.
When implementing new technology, Bowman-Brown advised giving school bus drivers and aides both training and time to adjust. Allow staff to give feedback and make decisions too, Ling added. Dillman recommended participating in professional development and seeking advice from other districts. Sawyer noted that the patience pays off in the end with efficiencies for all.
One attendee suggested adding new technology in phases so as to not overwhelm driver. Others said that staff members who are tech-savvy can assist those who aren’t, as well as keep morale up and avoid resentment over the new procedures.
Attendee Lisa Connors, director of transportation for Peabody Public Schools in Massachusetts and a student transporter with almost 30 years of experience, shared her excitement for routing technology to save her a lot of man-hours, late nights and stress. “Right now, we’re just using my brain,” she said.
Byrd noted that both technology and staff knowledge must be utilized for a successful operation. “Technology can’t replace a Lisa,” he remarked.
“We’re going to need technology but we’re also going to need people,” concluded Bowman-Brown.
Byrd noted that technology can be a means to a lasting legacy of positive change in a district. The panelists closed with their technology wishes for the future, which mostly centered on safety for students with special needs.
Marty Marks said it can be easy to get frustrated with the student riders when they don’t behave on the school bus. But he added that each day, students have a fresh start as they head to school.
Similarly, he said there is no place for transportation staff holding grudges or passing judgement. “Every day is a new day,” he added, echoing his favorite quote.
Marks started in the school transportation industry in 2005, when he became a school bus driver for his children’s school events. He started driving part-time for Neosho School District in Missouri as well as driving trips for four years. Marks then moved over 250 miles to the east, to St. Louis, where he worked for 10 years at First Student as a safety manager, later becoming a location manager. In 2019, he moved back to Neosho to serve as the director of transportation, a role he’s held since.
Marty Marks says he enjoys interacting and listening to the student bus riders.
Each year, School Transportation News chooses 10 Rising Stars based on nominations submitted by school districts and companies around the industry. These individuals have shown exemplary commitment and dedication in the student transportation industry and continue to demonstrate innovation in their roles. This year’s Rising Stars are featured in the November magazine issue.
“Listening to the younger students,” he said of his favorite part of his job and what’s kept in the industry for 20 years. “Students have imaginations and want to share their thoughts. Students need adult attention and that’s what truly makes the job enjoyable.”
Jim Davis, the superintendent of schools for Neosho, wrote in his nomination that Marks has made significant contributions to enhance the safety, mobility and sustainability at the district. Davis said Marks leads a team of around 70 employees and substitutes and excels in fostering culture within district transportation as a whole.
“This is demonstrated by his staff retention and training opportunities provided on-site to best serve the needs of NSD,” Davis wrote. “Furthermore, under Marty’s leadership, area schools have participated in the annual bus rodeo, hosted at NSD. This annual bus driving and bus maintenance competition provides area schools the opportunity to showcase their skills.”
Safety
Davis said one priority for Marks has been achieving a high school bus inspection rating of 90 percent or greater, as scored by the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Additionally, the district has earned the Exemplary School Bus Maintenance Award from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, recognizing a decade of excellent inspection scores.
“During the school year, Marty and his team also conduct on-site bus safety training with our students,” Davis continued. “The purpose is to educate all students within the Neosho School District bus safety and behavior expectations, regardless of if they are a daily rider.”
Prior to the new school year, Davis noted that a bus camp is also hosted, which provides new students an opportunity to tour the school bus, learn how to be responsible and safe on and around the bus, meet the drivers and take a ride on the bus. “The purpose of the bus camp is to help ease some anxiety that may come with being a new student daily rider and best prepare them for the first day of school,” Davis added.
Mobility
To ensure efficiency, Davis said Marks implemented new routing software from Transfinder. Marks noted that previously routing was a manual paper process, and the department was depending on drivers to route themselves.
Davis added that the purpose of implementing the software was to make the routes more efficient. And since implementation, NSD was able to eliminate a couple routes. “NSD runs approximately 50 different daily routes, not including extracurricular activities. Our district is located in the rural southwest corner of Missouri, where the longest route is an hour and a half and spans across two counties,” Davis said of district size.
Sustainability
Davis said NSD has a diverse fleet of diesel, gasoline and propane school buses. Marks said the diversification allows the district to utilize fuel prices to the best of their abilities.
“The purpose of the diverse fleet is to ensure the buses serve the district in the most efficient way to provide safety, cost savings and sustainability,” Davis wrote.
He provided an example, in which the district transported students to an extracurricular event that was three hours away.
“Marty instructed his team to drive the gasoline buses because the temperatures were expected to be dangerously cold,” he recalled. “A diesel bus driven by our neighboring school district would not start due to the weather, and rather than leaving students three hours away from home, our buses brought those students back and dropped them off at their school. Having a diverse fleet is not the norm within school districts, and we are thankful to have these buses to best serve students.”
Challenges
Marty Marks, director of transportation at Neosho School District in Missouri, is fostering team culture through implementation of safety practices and technology.
Marks said one of the biggest challenges at school startup is accurate student information, as many students move in and out of the district frequently. Having accurate student rosters is critical, he said. Additionally, he said, many students do not speak English, which is another challenge that transportation navigates.
“We are also currently using our ParentSquare system to send out mass messaging to help improve parent communications, by sending transportation information directly to parent emails,” he added.
Marks said the goal for the transportation department is to continue to improve its facility. “We want our facility to be among the best,” he said. “This will help to retain drivers.”
One way to do that is implementing a fueling software to better track fuel usage. Plus, he said NSD wants to continue purchasing buses with air conditioning as students are accustomed to it, and it’s better when there are high heat temperatures.
On a personal note, outside of work, Marks said he enjoys spending time with his grandchildren and working around the house.
Lyndsie Rodriguez says that’s what happened to her when her district, Lubbock Independent School District in Texas, upgraded from Routefinder Pro, once the industry’s Gold Standard for school bus routing, to Routefinder PLUS.
Lubbock ISD, located in the base of the panhandle, serves approximately 25,000 students, of which around 5,000 to 6,000 students are transported daily by the district’s buses. This involves managing 56 special education routes and 58 general education routes.
Lyndsie, Lubbock ISD’s router, says the district successfully made the move from Pro to PLUS, a seamless transition despite the size and complexity of its transportation system. Lubbock made the switch during the summer when transportation demands were lower.
She credits the smooth implementation to the support from Transfinder and the time taken to thoroughly test and adapt the system before the school year began. The district also took advantage of this time to retrain staff and work out any issues before fully launching the new system. This careful planning paid off.
“Everything has been really smooth,” she says.
The move from Pro to PLUS brought significant improvements to the district’s transportation operations. Lyndsie sheds light on the differences between the two systems and the positive impact PLUS has had on the district’s routing efficiency.
For Lyndsie, Routefinder PLUS represented a necessary advancement.
“Pro was good to start and learn to understand how everything works,” she says, “being brand new into [routing] and being taught by somebody who had been doing it for years. But PLUS was a necessary step to improve the quality of our routes, time management, and drivers’ understanding of where we’re going.”
One key feature that stood out for Lyndsie was the map-editing functionality in Routefinder PLUS. “I did not touch maps at all” in Pro, she says. In PLUS, Lyndsie finds the tools easy to use.
“It’s actually really fun. Sometimes I just sit there and create neighborhoods that we haven’t created yet,” she remarks, underscoring how user-friendly the map canvas and other features are in PLUS.
This improved user experience wasn’t just a matter of aesthetics or ease. According to Lyndsie, the enhanced features in Routefinder PLUS have directly contributed to more efficient routing and time management.
“We get stuff done a lot faster in PLUS rather than in Pro,” she notes. With Lubbock ISD often cycling drivers to other districts to help out with their transportation systems, PLUS has made it easier for drivers to understand routes and seamlessly assist other areas.
When asked whether she would ever consider going back to Pro, Lyndsie was unequivocal in her response:
“Absolutely not.” She adds that she encouraged the move to PLUS after her predecessor, who’d been routing for nearly three decades, retired. Comparing PLUS to Pro, Lyndsie says: “It’s cleaner. It’s prettier. It’s nicer. It’s more efficient,” emphasizing that Routefinder PLUS is more user-friendly and has the potential to unlock new levels of operational excellence for Lubbock ISD’s transportation department.
“There’s so much more potential here,” she says.
Lyndsie’s endorsement of the system is clear: the benefits of PLUS far outweigh any initial hesitation or learning curve that came with transitioning from Pro.
For other districts still using Routefinder Pro that may be hesitant to make the switch to PLUS, Lyndsie’s message is simple: “What are you waiting for?”
Although she admits to having initially sitting on the fence about the timing of the upgrade, not wanting to implement in the middle of the school year, she believes that moving to PLUS was a smart and necessary decision for Lubbock ISD.
And the Transfinder team, she says, was there all along the way.
“Everyone has been so amazing and helpful,” she says. “Y’all are so awesome, and I have absolutely no complaints whatsoever.”
Mitch Honey’s workday starts at 6am with a quick 60-second commute from door to door.
His “office” at the Ferndale School District, WA is the garage, where he’s been six years since he first walked through the doors as a mechanic. Ever since, his job has been to keep the district’s fleet running smoothly.
Ferndale is a small town of about 16,000 nestled in the Pacific Northwest – “About as northwest as you can get in the country, aside from Alaska,” he said – and just 15 minutes from the Canadian border.
“I’ve turned wrenches since I was 12,” he said, fixing up quads and farm equipment, learning the ins and outs of mechanics on the dairy farm where he first started working.
By 17, he was deep in the world of diesel engines, handling trucks, tractors and just about anything else with a motor.
Now, with the responsibility of being shop foreman on his shoulders, he finds himself in a new chapter of his life. And all that experience has prepared him for the job he has now.
Mitch, who notes that the district is “literally 60 seconds from my front door,” starts each workday at 6am, which helps him keep his day organized, just like his shop. Ferndale has 52 buses and more than 80 vehicles in total, and each needed regular care.
One of his first major projects as shop foreman was on the computer, not under the hood of a bus, was helping to introduce Servicefinder, Transfinder’s award-winning fleet maintenance and inventory management software, to the district. Servicefinder is another tool in Mitch’s shop, designed to streamline his team’s work.
Before Servicefinder, Mitch spent countless hours with a pen, paper and calculator, manually tracking the mileage and service schedules for each vehicle.
Servicefinder had changed everything, he said. Now, with the click of a button, he can see the health of the entire fleet, track parts and generate reports.
“It’s been a time-saver and it’s been a money-saver. The money that you save with parts inventory management, that is huge,” he said. “I’m still working on parts inventory because we have a gigantic parts inventory, half of which is useless because it’s outdated. I can look at that I have in there and say, ‘I haven’t used this in 24 months. Cool, we can toss it.’”
Mitch said selecting Servicefinder is one of the best decisions the department has made. The automation gives him time to focus on bigger problems, like that “lemon bus” that keeps giving them trouble or the outdated parts cluttering their inventory.
The district already had a relationship with Transfinder, utilizing Transfinder’s award-winning Routefinder PLUS to create safe and efficient routes, Tripfinder to manage field trips and Viewfinder, which provides unlimited users the ability to monitor the day-to-day operations of the transportation department and look up routing information.
Despite that relationship, Mitch did his own research for fleet maintenance software. Servicefinder ticked all the boxes Mitch was looking for.
“It has automated service tracking with mileage tracking,” he said. “Having automated mile tracking, service tracking and parts inventory was huge. “And then report generating, this was the last thing I really wanted because at the end of the year I should be able to go in and know this bus cost me this much money. Having the ability to just generate a report that says, ‘You spent this much from this date to this date’ and this many man hours – these are the biggest things that I wanted to have.”
Thanks to an efficient operation, Mitch ends most days early in the afternoon.
Mitch is grateful for his former boss and mentor, Mike Burrous, whom he learned a lot about running a shop from. Now, as the one in charge, he’s determined to honor that legacy, running the shop with the same precision and care.
Servicefinder is helping him to do just that.
And it’s played a role in improving his quality of life, closing out his day at 2:30pm, to return home to his wife and baby girl.
Surveys can be tricky things. If you don’t ask questions, you don’t receive criticism. But you don’t even receive constructive feedback.
Did you know Transfinder has created a free tool embedded in the award-winning Routefinder PLUS routing solution that makes it easy for districts to conduct their own surveys? It’s called Formfinder and it’s far more unique and useful than free survey tools out there because it allows you to tailor your survey geographically or isolate the results based on a certain region.
For example, you may find that concerns being voiced are not districtwide but from one area and as a result there may be a deeper reason for those concerns.
At Transfinder we are constantly conducting surveys, even providing enticements like a gift card to encourage people to provide their honest answers to questions. If you’ve attended any of our webinars or appearances at national or state association conferences, you’ve heard our President and CEO, Antonio Civitella, say, “I want to hear the good, the bad and the ugly.”
He’ll quickly add that it’s the only way we can get better.
Survey: How was your school opening?
We recently used Formfinder to survey our clients about how their school opening was. We are continuing to survey clients because there are parts of the country where school hasn’t opened yet. We asked if their opening was “The Best Ever,” “Good Overall,” “Some Hiccups/Minor Issues” or “Serious issues.”
Most of the responses, which came from districts across the country, were that most openings were “The Best Ever” or “Good Overall.”
“This was our best year yet,” said Diane Spurlock, transportation director at Indian Hill Exempted Village School District in Cincinnati, Ohio. “Every year I learn and implement more of the Routefinder PLUS features. Your products are greatly appreciated. There is a lot to it but I love being able to check and sort out my information in so many different ways. This is what made for a great opening day.”
Wes Alexander, director of transportation at Henderson County Schools in Kentucky, had a similar experience.
“Since we upgraded to PLUS last year, our routing has been more efficient and has helped tremendously with smooth days,” he said. Besides Routefinder PLUS, the driver app Wayfinder and field trip solution Tripfinder contributed to the smooth opening.
Was this your school’s experience this school opening?
Routefinder PLUS
Andrew Strack, transportation secretary at East Noble School Corp. in Indiana, said this was the best school opening he’s experienced.
“Making changes to routes, adding students and stops were quick and easy,” he said. “This is my first year in the job of routing and I couldn’t believe how well it went.”
SEO = Safety, Efficiency and Optimization
Dale Wagner, director of transportation at Concord Community Schools in Michigan, said he faced challenges prior to the start of school.
“We lost a driver due to retirement,” Wagner said, yet with Routefinder PLUS, he was “able to eliminate and combine his route into others completely.”
Wayfinder and Infofinder i
Craig Henson, coordinator of transportation at Tuscaloosa County Schools in Alabama, noted that “Transfinder products provided a wide array of tools and resources to handle all of the logistics necessary for opening school and being prepared for transporting 12,500-plus students. Safety, efficiency and optimization were three key tools that helped in this.”
SEO – Safety, Efficiency and Optimization – are embedded in Transfinder’s suite of products. Henson mentioned beyond PLUS the importance of the driver app Wayfinder and Transfinder’s Infofinder i solution, which allows parents to quickly access their child’s bus information.
Jeannie Del Rio, an administrative assistant with Murray City School District in Utah, also boasted of a good opening thanks to tools such as Routefinder PLUS and Infofinder i.
“We were able to create a new route, get students geocoded, send parent emails and transmit up-to-date information for Infofinder,” she said, noting that Transfinder’s resources, such as the twice-a-day hotlines, played a role in such a smooth opening. “I think the summer webinars helped me be prepared. I was able to get route and information in place prior to the onslaught of student registration!”
Stopfinder
Carla Stearns, transportation supervisor at Brookfield Local Schools in Ohio also pointed to the parent app Stopfinder as a huge help for school opening.
“Stopfinder has made communication with parents much better,” she said.
Viewfinder
Kelly Dicke, transportation coordinator at St. Mary’s City Schools in Ohio also mentioned how critical Viewfinder was for a seamless opening. Districts with Viewfinder provide unlimited users access to district transportation information, including bus schedules.
“Building secretaries were able to look up students to assist with afternoon bus numbers if the student wasn’t sure which bus to board,” Dicke said.
Are phone calls into your district from parents up, the same as last year, or down? Abby DeWeese’s response may surprise you.
Read what the routing supervisor at Alvin ISD in Texas had to say.
To learn how you can have the kind of opening these districts had – and many more – call 800-373-3609 or email marketing@transfinder.com with the word “Opening” in the subject line.
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