Do All Wsfc School Buses Have Cameras

Past Kim Underwood

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools

AUGUST 20, 2014 – As part of its continued focus on student prophylactic, the school system's Transportation Department has installed stop-arm cameras on buses to document drivers who pass stopped school buses.

School officials are hoping that the cameras will serve a dual purpose. One, the recordings can be used to place and help captive drivers who ignore the terminate arm. Two, they hope that knowing about the cameras will keep drivers from passing stopped schoolhouse buses.

"We want information technology as a deterrent," said Anthony Avant, the school system's fleet maintenance supervisor.

Every time a driver passes a stopped bus, he said, "it's a kid that could be hit."

For Avant and the other 500 people who work in the Transportation Department, the overall goal is to go students to and from schoolhouse safely each twenty-four hours. Kelly Jones, the school system's transportation analyst, said that she and others are doing their best to keep students safe.

"That's my primary priority," Jones said.

This past school year, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools had cease-arm cameras on two buses. This summer, workers installed another 25 high-definition cameras on routes with a high incidence of violations.

"They can be changed from bus to bus," Avant said.

So, during the school year, the buses can exist switched to buses on other routes where drivers report recurring problems.

The 25 new cameras, which cost about $3,000 each, were paid for with local funds.  If the cameras evidence valuable in helping to convict violators and in reducing the number of incidents, school officials will look at adding buying more than cameras to the budget in following years. "We're going to make sure nosotros become results," Avant said.

Avant understands that, in some cases, people are not clear nearly what the rules are nigh when to stop for a bus. He hopes that, with school starting, they will familiarize themselves with those rules.  More information about the N.C. Schoolhouse Jitney Stop Law is available at Motorcoach Finish Rules

A few students take already started classes, just most of the 54,000 students in the schoolhouse system will start on Monday. On that 24-hour interval, drivers on 359 regular routes will pick up the 33,000 students who ride the bus. Most drivers run several routes – elementary, middle, loftier. By the terminate of the year, bus drivers will have covered nearly six million miles, or virtually 18,000 miles for each driver.

The Transportation Department has washed a number of other things every bit well to better safety, communication and service. All school buses already had a Global Positioning System (GPS) tracker that let transportation officials know where each bus was at all times. With the quondam system, coverage could exist temporarily lost, and the GPS information was not direct bachelor to each of the schools.

The new system put into place this summer ensures constant coverage and provides the information directly to each of the schools. That means that, if a parent calls a school wanting to know where a bus is, the designated person at the school can expect upwards the information and say, for example, "The bus is iii blocks from your stop."

The school system has besides installed camera systems – each organization has iv cameras – on the inside of buses on routes where behavior problems take been an effect. This summer, it installed some other 30 camera systems for a total of 145. Eventually, officials hope to have the cameras in every bus.

The camera systems enable school officials to record activeness inside the motorcoach and document whatever misbehavior. W.G. "Dub" Potts, the schoolhouse system'south interim transportation director, hopes that the information from the cameras will assist assistant principals and others at the schoolhouse who bargain with discipline problems.

Non incidentally, the cameras could too provide information near students who intentionally harm the seats in buses. During the fiscal twelvemonth that ended June 30, WS/FCS spent $87,600 replacing seat covers in buses. That is more than enough to pay for a new school bus, which costs about $86,000, or 90 transmissions for school buses. Most of that could have been saved if students had treated seat covers with respect.

The initial damage to a seat cover is frequently a puncture with a pen, pencil, scissors or other musical instrument, and then the harm is made worse by other students working with the pigsty. In hopes of minimizing such damage this year, schoolhouse officials have done their best to come across that seats are in good shape at the offset of the school twelvemonth.

"Accept care of the equipment," Potts said. "Respect the property the tax payers accept provided."

Equally office of a pilot program, voice-enhancement devices have been added to two buses. The idea is that instead of having to raise his or her voice, the driver can activate the device and easily be heard by students throughout the bus.

"The driver can talk in a normal voice," Avant said. "The kids in the back of the bus can hear them."

One of the pilot devices is activated past a foot petal. The other has an on/off switch, and school officials want to come across which one works better for bus drivers. The school organization had to get permission from country officials to install the devices. As far as Potts and Avant know, this is the only school system trying out the devices at the moment.

Today was orientation day for loftier school freshmen. Bus drivers were on the road this morning, running their routes to brand sure they were familiar with new stops and such, and, when they ran their loftier school routes, they picked up any freshman who were heading to their schools for orientation. This afternoon, they are returning the freshmen domicile at the end of the day.

Boosted requests for new stops will not exist acted on until Sept. eight. That gives the section and drivers a chance to brand sure that everything is operating smoothly as school opens. In the meantime, students who have practical for a new terminate tin can catch the bus at an existing terminate.

One reason that a bus may not be on time is that, when a commuter misses a day, drivers on other routes may have to split up that commuter's responsibilities and add a road to the one they are already driving. That means that all the routes may exist afflicted. And because the school system does not have permanent drivers for every route, some routes take to be juggled regularly.

One of Potts' goals is minimize such problems by having a permanent driver for every route. At the moment, the section is about ten drivers curt. Drivers start out existence paid $12.63 per hour. Those with the most seniority in the organisation make slightly more $twenty an hour.

Most drivers drive well-nigh iv hours a day. If they tin can bring the hours upwardly to six hours or more, either by the routes they drive or by adding other piece of work responsibilities in the schoolhouse system, they receive total benefits. If you are interested in becoming a passenger vehicle driver, you can download an application hither, fill information technology out and bring information technology to the Assistants Building at 475 Corporate Square Drive. Or you tin come to the Administration Building, option up an application from the receptionist and fill information technology out on the spot.

Source: https://www.wsfcs.k12.nc.us/site/Default.aspx?PageType=3&DomainID=3&PageID=119316&ViewID=6446ee88-d30c-497e-9316-3f8874b3e108&FlexDataID=156373

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