Trustees set aside $20,000 to streamline Gilroy’s bus
routes.
The new school bus routing system is supposed to make the routes
more efficient and manageable, according to Emil Frates,
transportation director. Edulog, a transportation and demographic
consulting firm based out of Missoula, Mont., offers an automated
system to develop and maintain school bus routes.
Trustees set aside $20,000 to streamline Gilroy’s bus routes.
The new school bus routing system is supposed to make the routes more efficient and manageable, according to Emil Frates, transportation director. Edulog, a transportation and demographic consulting firm based out of Missoula, Mont., offers an automated system to develop and maintain school bus routes.
The company loads the district’s street grid, school boundaries, bell schedules and student data and spits out routes that take into account safety issues like dangerous street crossings and the residences of sexual predators.
The system requires a $10,000 installation fee and a $833 monthly maintenance fee.
“Edulog is a tool I need as a manager,” said Frates, who used the system in previous districts. Although he believed the feedback from his employees regarding Edulog to be generally favorable, bus driver Linda Figone told a different story.
“The majority of bus drivers are not for this program,” she said.
Fellow bus driver Rebecca Scheel agreed. Scheel said that at a time when bus drivers’ hours are being cut and routes are being eliminated, the time isn’t right to purchase expensive routing software.
“We’re scared about our jobs, our hours and our kids,” she said. “I don’t want to say ‘don’t buy it’ but a lot of our concern is the money that’s being spent and how it’s going to affect the big picture.”
Despite approving the request to purchase Edulog, board member Denise Apuzzo and other trustees also doubted the necessity of the service.
During recent budget cuts, the cash-strapped district had to cut routes and considered charging families for public school transportation.
With three fewer routes this year, and the possibility that charging a fee might decrease ridership, Apuzzo questioned the need for a $20,000 program.
Frates assured the board that the benefits of the service far outweighed the costs and that the company would provide ongoing support to the district to maximize transportation dollars and miles.
