District Administration - July 2010 - (Page 69)

ADVERTISEMENT Transportation Software Helps District Absorb Budget Cuts Michigan district optimizes bus routes and cuts $160,000 in replacement costs with Versatrans he Lakewood Public School district near Lansing, MI, improve routing the district would not have been able to absorb was coping with transportation cuts and struggling with the $160,000 budget cut. “There may be more savings,” Tobias said, a cumbersome routing system based on outdated tech- “since it looks like we might not be buying buses for another few nology, so Transportation Director Greg Tobias started years – that’s $75,000 per unit.” Versatrans provided the district with the ability to create more talking to other districts about what software they were using to efﬁcient routing, including double-tiered routes. “We had a person manage bus routing. at Versatrans work with us for a couple The Versatrans Transportation Manof weeks,” Tobias said. “We copied some agement Solution, a suite of products information and she went in and built the from Tyler Technologies, seemed to be two scenarios. Then we were able to comthe most popular. “One of the things pare them and ﬁne tune them through that really jumped out at us was the the summer.” tech support,” Tobias said. “The people Using simulations, the district at Versatrans were very available, easy tweaked and corrected routes, and on to work with and the program was very Day One the new routing performed easy to set up and use.” perfectly—without any of the ﬁrst-day Ease of use was important to the disconfusion or missteps that might have trict, which covers 235 rural square miles, previously been anticipated. busing 1,600 of its 2,200 students on 18 In addition to being able to more readregular buses and three special ed buses. ily tackle major routing changes, there are Versatrans has put the bus routing everyday improvements as well. “Parents information into the hands of each of have the most detailed and accurate route the district’s six school assistants who information we’ve ever been able to give can easily access student and routthem,” said Tobias. “Now they are more ing information. When new trips are at ease knowing exactly when the bus is requested, such as the 500 ﬁeld trips “This tool helps to make us coming.” and athletic team travel, an assistant at In the summer, when transportation each school is able to enter the trip into more efﬁcient and deal staff used to work full time, they are now Versatrans’ Triptracker. The system then with budget cuts as we only needed a few weeks. Student transmoves the request through approval and fers in and out during the school year can into bidding by drivers and sets up the optimize routes while be easily routed by the transportation trip and routing. downsizing the ﬂeet.” assistant. The district had been on a three Tobias said greater ﬁnancial savings bus per year purchasing rotation, but a $160,000 annual budget cut eliminated the replacement rotation have been realized because the district can use fewer buses more and reduced available staff time. With fewer buses and a smaller effectively, thus minimizing the effect of planned reductions in staff, Tobias needed a way to be more efﬁcient, to keep students transportation funding. “This tool helps to make us more efﬁcient and deal with budget safe and eliminate the lengthy 90-minute long bus rides that were cuts as we optimize routes while downsizing the ﬂeet,” Tobias said. becoming the norm. The answer seemed to lie with double-tiered routes, with buses picking up and dropping off secondary grade school students before For more information, visit www.versatrans.com. re-routing for elementary school kids. “When we purchased Versatrans Routing & Planning in the summer of 2007, we hadn’t been planning the shift to double-tiered routes but we knew we wanted that capability,” Tobias said. In fact, Tobias believes without Versatrans’ capabilities to www.DistrictAdministration.com July/August 2010 69 T http://www.versatrans.com http://www.versatrans.com http://www.DistrictAdministration.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - July 2010

District Administration - July 2010
Contents
Advertiser Index
Letters
From the Editor
News Update
Sustainability Update
Technology Update
Curriculum Update
Administrator Profile
District Profile
The Golden State Loses Its Luster
Seeking Justice in San Francisco
The Push for Public Preschool
Gearing up for the New Assessment
Books
Products
Online Edge
Supervisor’s Insights
Crisis Response
Supervisor’s Opinion
Tech Disruptions
Professional Opinion
Professional Opinion

District Administration - July 2010