NEW HARTFORD — New Hartford Central School District Director of Transportation Scott Gaffney recently revealed some cutting-edge technology advancements that will soon be standard on district buses.
In a Tuesday, Jan. 17, presentation to the district’s Board of Education, Gaffney told the board members about the upcoming enhancements, including upgrades to their routing software that will allow for drivers to access the most current maps of the area streets.
“There will be turn-by-turn instructions that will be safer because there will be no looking at a paper,” Gaffney said.
A one-server rather than a multiple-server system will also mean multiple routes will be able to be managed all at the same time much more efficiently using the new tech. New GPS units installed in the buses will transmit their locations at all times, allowing for buses to be tracked so the transportation department will know where the buses are at any given time during the run.
Immediate diagnostics will also be a new maintenance asset, giving out reports on what is going on within the bus’ operating systems. There will be computer-based paperless field trip programming, allowing for every step from the initial application of a field trip proposal straight to the final report when the kids are back at school. Paperless inspection reports and record saving of those reports will also be possible in the very near future, Gaffney said.
Bus drivers will even have the convenience of being able to sign in and out of work right from the bus, he added.
Parents are likely to be the most happy with a new app that will be available that will be able to tell them when the bus will likely arrive at each stop. Gaffney said he anticipated the new technology will be up and running by July.
After the presentation, District Superintendent Cosimo Tangorra Jr. applauded Gaffney’s efforts in both coordinating current runs and moving the transportation department into the future. “Scott is being more than modest — this is a lot more difficult than he made it sound,” Tangorra said.
For more information on the New Hartford Central School District transportation department, call 315-624-1239 or visit www.newhartfordschools.org.