2024-8-14 Transportation Information Session

e well as through our live streaming process yes it's going the mixer I'm just not getting it on my right now why aren't I that these recommendations will contribute to improvements in ontime arrival Transportation safety and timely Communications which together will set the stage for an improved student transportation experience the five prioritized recommendations are first school start and end times have shifted this is also referred to as our school Bellon and that work was completed this past spring number two bus stop locations are moving this movement is the result of bus stop consolidations third are you in the bus Zone the transportation system is conducting a walk Zone audit of bus stops that are located close to schools to determine if a bus is still needed for each stop fourth don't need a bus tell us this is also referred to as an opt out option for families to no longer receive Transportation if not needed and lastly number five track in the app we have heard clearly from our community the concerns regarding the stop finder application this recommendation is focused on improving the functionality of the app and the overall customer service provided to families so this year represents phase one of a multi-year and multiphase improvement process where we plan to continue to enhance transportation service through implementing these prioritized recommendations engaging the community in deliberate ways to ensure a collaborative approach such as tonight's town hall and third thirdly evaluate our progress using defined metrics I will now turn the presentation over to director Baldwin to review the recommendations in Greater detail good evening recommendation one we have shared this progress monitoring slide to represent key actions Communications and engagement measures and Reporting measures to all stakeholders our transportation team has worked through major key actions such as consolidating stops and repairing trips as part of what we call the summer cleaning we are receiving student information in order to assign students to appropriate bus stops as we begin the school year 2425 our team will continue to monitor monitor key performance indicators such as the number of trips per tier and as of today this recommendation is on track for full implementation recommendation two we have shared the finding that 76% 65,000 students have a bus stop2 4 miles or less from their home residence we have extended this walking distance to an average of 46 miles from the current average of 024 miles this adjust adjustment has been placed where appropriate please keep in mind that our administrative procedure is 1.5 miles for elementary and two miles for secondary students our Focus has been been given to our elementary students to keep a shorter walking distance and as of today this recommendation to Consolidated stops is on track for full implementation again we will measure these um changes over the next months recommendation three our walks Zone audit our team conducted initial walk Zone audits to ensure safe passage opportunities and our Discovery we noticed we needed some important Partners to help validate this process further our Safety and Security team will now be a part of any further reviews concerning safe passage inside our walk zones key actions here included creating an evaluation plan to address each stop for safety and training staff on the use of this evaluation tool currently we plan on having our conducting or being part of monthly meetings with County agencies including a crossing guard unit the Department of Public Works and transportation and our school resource officers and as of today this recommendation three is on track for full implementation recommendation four this is our codified optout process our data and accountability group provided parent surveys toward the end of the school year we received around 3,000 requests to opt out of Transportation parents are able to continue to opt out through the online reg registration portal found within Synergy all requests will be handled by the school's register register parents will be able to see all information within the parent view portal key actions here included integrating the opt out process into the student information system and optimizing trips for decisions made from the opt out decisions of our parents here again today recommendation four is on track for full implementation and finally recommendation five enhanced customer service uh like Dr Coleman has stated we've heard all parents on the frustration that we've had in dealing with the parent app so we've kind of refocused our attention to two key deliverables here one for our parents to be able to use the stopfer app and see the location of the bus and receive notifications when the bus is picking up or dropping off your channel and second receiving updated Communications through the stop finder app and our school Messenger application if the bus is sign significantly late and that's 15 minutes or more we will be monitoring key performance indicators such as our number of user accounts um the number of Geo alerts that have been created and as well this recommendation is on track for full implementation all right this point I'll turn it back over to Dr Coleman keeping in line with our discussion of of uh the stop finder app this summer our transportation department in conduction with the in conjunction with the division of Information Technology conducted live demonstrations of the stop finder app the purpose was to demonstrate the useful tools of the application once the parent has downloaded and activated an account the demonstration included Department of Transportation and information technology staff and select board members this experience yielded valuable feedback that resulted in the creation of informational videos that will be released to the public and several program enhancement requests made back to the vendor additionally we are placing communication staff at each bus slot we have 12 bus slots so there will be communication members at each of those 12 bus slots to support the uh the process of updating of conducting timely notification of bus updates U we can hold on [Music] please okay thank you to maximize the benefits of the stop finder app it's important for every parent to do three things and this is very important so I'm going to emphasize this we know that we migrated from we've opened up a new student information system we've gone from school max in the past to now we have Synergy so in the Synergy system there is a parent portal called parent view we need every family all of our families to First download oh create a parent view account that's number one create a parent view account two activate the stop finder app when you receive the link so when you download or activate your U parent view account you'll be sent an active link to then sign up for a stop finder we need parents to activate that stop finder link and then third set up Geo alerts to allow the app to send you push notifications to your cell phone that will allow the app to be fully functional you'll not only see the bus as it travels on its trip path you'll also receive notifications when the bus goes through What's called the Geo fence the Geo fence is set up o you can set it up over the bus stop and you can set it up over the school so every time the bus travels over that geofence it'll signal to you that your child is being picked up and then it'll when it gets to the school it will go through that geofence and signal that your child is being dropped off and then it'll do the reverse in the afternoon so we're going to show a short video it's only 2 minutes uh that discusses how to set up your stop finder [Music] account this stop finder school bus app is going to be a lifesaver wait what what's stop finder the stop finder app tells you where your bus stop is and the current location of the bus oh wow how do I get the app mom you have to enroll in PGCPS parent view then you'll receive an invitation to activate the app here's the important part families must have an up-to-date email address in parent view in order to activate the subscription so not up to the email no stop finder once the email is verified families receive a notice to download and activate the account use your email and password to enter the app the students information automatically populates because you are already in the PGCPS school system click on any date at the top of the screen to see the bus pickup and drop off information so how can I see the current location of the bus that's easy mom next to the student's name tap the ellipses menu for the student and select map click the map button below or tap on the trip and the map of the bus route will display at the bottom of the screen click on the Bell to create Geo alerts which allows the app to send you a notification when the bus enters the S you can name the zone and save it wow I like this app already you can also move the zone to position it and change the size of the alert Zone with the slider then save it at the bottom of the screen notifications can be set up to tell you when the bus enters or departs the alert Zone I like notifications more information can be displayed by tapping the maps icon GE alert notifications will be sent to your device in the app or on your phone as a push notification watch the bus move and know exactly where it is wow this this is going to make my life much easier and less stressful yeah Mom it's all about modest changes better service everyone benefits visit the PGCPS website to learn more about parent view and the stop finder [Music] app so thank you so much to our Communications and transportation team for creating that video and there are also a series of other videos to support uh families understandings of the other recommendations in this action plan and those will be rolled out uh to the community shortly so this Transportation action plan is designed to be implemented over multiple years given this is the first year we are looking to make progress but not promise Perfection it's important to say that again we are working hard to make progress with our transportation system but we are not promising that it will be perfect we know that Prince George's County Public Schools is one of the 10 largest student transportation systems in the country the size of our district and the number of our programs that we offer uh make Improvement a complex and Monumental task we also know that there is still a national bus driver shortage and attendance shortage with that said we are committed to implementing this plan monitoring key performance indicators and making adjustments where necessary to support improvements this includes bolstering our targeted hiring efforts to include social media and digital advertisements to reach people directly as we implement the five recommendations it is very important to us to monitor the progress of the plan we will continue working uh let's Advance the slide if we could I'll keep going and the slide will catch up uh we will continue working with the third-party Transportation consulting firm formative in the ongoing data collection and analys is process they have been positioned to provide us with quarterly data reports on the metrics listed here as well as others to support our continuous Improvement efforts this data will be shared with all stakeholders including our Board of Education at regular intervals throughout the year at this time I will turn the presentation over to director Cunningham to discuss safe passage good evening everyone uh again my name is Gary Cunningham I'm the director of Safety and Security for the Prince George's County public school system and we know as we Implement changes everybody's not always happy with what we do so one of the things that we we want to do is we want to make sure that there's an appeal process we are committed to ensuring that your child has the best safest uh route possible to walk to school so to do that we put in a process uh so that you can appeal any decisions that have been made as it relates to changing of bus routes we will utilize the Transportation resolution system to submit the request for review for your for those changes uh the once the request is received it will go to the appropriate department whether it's the transportation department the security department or other agency within uh within the school system and the person making the request will receive an update and and a resolution to to whatever their concern was we know that the different uh requests will come in uh for different departments so there is a process for every one of the requests that come in if it's a new school that's being built new construction uh in the state of Maryland requires that there is a uh safe walk to school act that requires us to do a safe route uh check for every school so every school that is built in the state of Maryland there is a requirement that we meet with the Department of Public Works and transportation or the State Highway Administration and look at the walking routes to those schools if there are bus stop changes that are made and you disagree or you like to that to be reconsidered the stop the uh Transportation resolution system will also route that to the transportation department they will send out a field supervisor that supervisor will take a look at that request and make a determination as to whether or not that change should be reconsidered oftentimes we will get requests for traffic signal changes or traffic calming devices the depart Prince Georg County Department of Public Works and transportation and the Maryland State Highway Administration process those requ us they have a a system in place where they will go out they will do a traffic uh safety study and make a determination as to what needs to be done with that location crossing guards occasionally we'll get the request for crossing guards uh those requests are handled by the Prince George's County Police Department uh we meet with them on a regular basis to talk about those changes and ensure that the priority stops are covered uh by that crossing guard activity and then occasionally we will get request for uh safety concerns that are not police related uh we will manage those within the safety office we will send someone out to take a look at those requests to determine what appropriate actions will be taken and we'll also have some that will be referred to the police department so we do have a process in place and everything that we do the requestor will will receive some type of response letting them know what we've done or whether or not what type of update uh has is available and that's all I have thank you thank you director cyam our next set of slides um kind of give for our parents preparing for the start of school and then what is what you need to know so the first thing is about the transportation assignment our team works hard we've have our own internal deadlines that we have to meet in in order to produce the trips and the routes and the bus stops for our families so there are some things that we needed to have in place and I'm sharing them with you tonight um primarily the first thing is about uh registration we need to make sure that every child is registered if a child is not registered in our Synergy system I can't give them a bus stop because I pull that information from Synergy to my transportation system in order to assign a bus stop so we want to make sure that all students are in en rolled uh we've had a we set a date that by August any any student that has registered by August 7th um in that school we're going to pretty much guarantee that they have a bus stop uh by the first day of school now if you did not don't worry because as long as if you're in that system beyond that August 8th date and hopefully prior to uh next Wednesday you may have that stopped for you we just ask that you continue to check systems we will also mail postcards so the address that you have on file that's in Synergy or in that parent view portal now that is the address that we will be mailing postcards to and these postcards have your bus assignment on them we're going to be mailing those out beginning next week if you have a discrepancy once you receive your postcard between what's written on that postcard and what's in your parent view portal I want you to go with the parent view portal okay because that's the most upto-date information as we and as you and parents are still enrolling students that information continue to flow and so we may have to change a stop relocate it reassign it or whatnot so we want to make sure that that information is available to you and the most up to-date information will be in that parent view portal for you late registration as I mentioned before if you registered late and are not assigned a bus stop you can submit the request through our transportation resolution System bus assignments will be available in parent view 3 to 5 days after enroll is confirmed understanding enrollment we need to make sure that all students are fully enrolled and if you have questions about that I have to refer you back to your school and their school register to make sure that you have a complete enrollment once that information is free and clear in the system I get it and I need that 3 to five day turnaround to produce a bus stop and put it back into that parent view system so that you can see it the opt out portion here again if you do not need a bus tell us very important for us to improve on our accuracy and our actual count the more of an actual account of ridership we have the better chances we can produce an ontime arrival to school and to home Okay move to fast is there all right stop finder app right yeah here we go so parents as we've said before the stop finder app is your tool for tracking a bus it's also your tool for your stop assignment you can also see that if you are not able to get into your parent view you can have you can log into your stop finder app if you already have an account it just flows over okay but one key point in this and in order for you to see your route number and bus number you got to go to the first day of school so if you look today you're not going to see anything so you got to swipe on your calendar to August 26 once you get there you should see a route number and particularly a bus number that way we know that that's an absolute and upto-date routee uh bus assignment for you okay uh but we do want uh to increase the usage of our families accessing the stop finder out last year we sent out roughly 60,000 invitations um only about um 23,000 of those were ever activated right and so um and then out of that 23,000 only about 5,000 folks really activated their go alerts the go alerts um indic allow us to do the push notifications to you to say the bus has arrived to that area and departed from that area so we really want to increase the usage of our families uh with that stop finder app which creating that Geo alert is very important here if you need assistance submitting request through our transportation resolution system is the first is the easiest way uh we do have a call call center that will be available from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and we're going to be open on the weekend uh the 23rd through the 25th or excuse me the 22nd through the 25th um with extended hours Saturday and Sunday we know the first weeks of school are very important to us and to you but we Face uncontrollable situations traffic conditions um The Experience the new experience of firsttime bus riders um our drivers are still getting used to their routes and your student the afternoon the schools will take their time to load students because they want to make sure they put your student on the right bus so they may run over the dis the departure time that we have set for them to leave school we know that happens that's okay we do that that may occur for the first week so we ask for your patience and a little Grace as we get this started okay um the delays and leaving school leaving our stops uh some of that stuff we we cannot control all the time but we definitely want to be able to share what's happening that's causing that bus to be laid so please understand and and please have give us your grace for that for information to view um excuse me for more information and to view um our frequent asked questions please visit our transportation FAQ page uh and thank you for your attention to these important details and we look forward to a very successful year at this time I'm going to turn it back over to Dr Jackson comments so ladies and gentlemen it's now time uh for us to open the floor for your opportunity to come to the mic and ask questions um just a few directions to get us started when the period starts each person present in this Auditorium uh who desires to ask a question may come to the microphone that's here in the floor and um when you are called called upon by our panel we ask that you please uh be careful not careful but succinct uh in your responses because we want as many people as possible that are present here tonight to have an opportunity to ask a question and to receive an answer to your question we also ask that when you're asking your question uh that you remember that this is a question and uh answer period is not an opport opportunity for soliloquies or speeches it's really about helping our team make sure that we can respond to the concerns that you may have so we're asking that um when you come to the microphone please state your name slowly spell your last name to support our ASL interpreter share your role and your school affiliation and please as you are addressing ing the the panel use titles rather than names um and any U refrain from using any inappropriate language this uh presentation is being live streamed to our larger community and we want to make sure that we ensure a proper protocol as we're addressing each other again we want to thank you and we want to hear from everyone we started on time we promised to end on time and we're going to do our best to support each and every person who has a question tonight so at this time the mic is open good evening my name is Michelle Smallwood s m a l l w o d my question I'm a parent and an employee within the school system my children will will attend Vansville Elementary and I work at Francis fuches ECC I do like stop finder say something positive um when it works I will try the Geo alert this school year my children rode the bus and my question is will you consider giving stop finder to the teachers for your lower grades my children were stop finder was not working the day my children did not come home when I went to the school they had no idea and if the office had the stop finder I think they would have been able to contact all the parents quickly I was left off I was left off the roster that day so my question is will you consider giving stop finder to the classroom for those teachers to track buses they come in and out each day thank you for that question that's a good point um we may not be able to directly allow teachers and school officials access to stop finder because it's a closed system uh primarily set for parents to manage as an alternative we are working we we'll have something in place where the schools may have access to see a see the direction of the bus in a passive sense not necessarily when an active in an active side but maybe in the passive side but we also are in communicating more so we have staff that will be situated at the bus Lots Dr coeman mentioned earlier and they are going to kind of sit right beside the bus lot staff so any changes that are made so if they know the bus is running late we can immediately send you a school messenger a robo call out let you know um and we're going to update that stop finder app so there's not there should not be um we're going to minimize those instances where the stoper doesn't work because I know when when you see it and it's not working I know why it's not working and we're working to minimize that so if it's within the school hours you should be able to see that app and you're going to be able to see that bus if you're not seeing it you should be getting some push notifications or some or other Communications to let you know that bus status all right thank you hello my name is martasia Henderson um I'm a parent I have a student at Benjamin fooy and Academy of Health Sciences they're both going to be new to those um schools this year uh I have a couple of questions so I don't know how how we're going to work this but I've noticed I've had experience with four different schools in the county and I've noticed that the capabilities of the schools when it comes to Transportation updates varies widely for example at one school if a car if a bus was involved in an accident we would immediately get a notification from the school at another school um they said that they have no way of knowing anything about buses and what happens to buses and so we wouldn't get those same updates and I would literally be sitting in my car getting updates for one one school and no updates for the other and I just didn't understand how certain school secretaries could help the broad broader School community and others couldn't um and maybe that's something Transportation could help with um kind of piggybacking off of the prior question will students be able to access the um stop finder information I'm going to have a high schooler there may be days when she has to get herself to the bus stop and so that could be helpful um um instead of her trying to contact me at work and I'm in a meeting and I can't get her the information uh do you want me to stop no P how many questions do you have let's let's try to keep it let's do that one real quick okay all right uh as a parent and when you receive that invitation and I'm assuming you already have the stop finder app well there's a portion where you can share access to that so a phone number and an email address you can share that with your older student if you from that standpoint are any family members that are in tune to helping uh manage your your child your students before school after school you can share that that's what I was talking about the system is a closed system for security so you as a parent have the right to share that information with anybody you wish okay and if you need some assistance we can show you how to do that after this meeting if need be as op outs um this is the first time I've heard of op outs uh as those kind of increase do you anticipate uh and I haven't used bus transportation in two years so the prior two years we just drove into school um but do you anticipate that there will be drastic changes to our schedules as more parents opt out and as the word gets out well it's possible but right now uh we received about 3,000 um request to opt out and right now that number as I'm as one of the numbers I kind of check daily it's not increasing in a manner that we're going to see drastic changes all right so right now the reason um we it's a default right now because if you do not if you didn't respond to the survey earlier in the before the end of the school year um and from that point you you you would still get a bus stop right and so um this was just a first stage of that um next year we may look to do something different where we may um look to opt in for transportation meaning that we're going to give you some time and you have to tell us if you want Transportation or not that's where we're going to gain some significant changes from that standpoint I have a quick recommendation um I know parent view isn't maybe under your purview or maybe it is under the CO's purview but just a a faster link to where that website is would be helpful because I have to click all around to find it um same for the Stop finder links I mean I found them but it just was difficult from my phone um so thank you so much for that feedback um the parent view student information system is under our division of Information Technology but we'll certainly take that recommendation back and then finally um I read a news article that said that you guys would be actually looking having a human look at the the route maps and is that still the case do you all have the time for that so we started this project uh we presented it to the board I think last January and we hit the ground running in February so I've had team members looking at stops from February up until August where we've put eyes on bus stops we've put eyes in the walk zone so um and and what that does it becomes a continual process so we're going to constantly review because um we have students that move in um our boundary sometimes will change situations may change they're growing we're building roads and so we're keeping in contact with the doot and the county officials for any changes um they do a really good job to Comm communicate with us when they're getting ready to do road construction and it may hinder a bus stop and we may have to reroute and all of that so uh I feel good and confident that we are going to be um kept up to date and when that information comes to us we can share it to you if it's impactful on your students ride thank you for your questions good evening my name is toia mun m a n g t u n I am a student and I rode the bus to my middle school my my con my concern is that I am out of the county for the school I mean High School I am attending to and I want to know is if the bus is still able to transport me to the high school when I'm out of the county for the high school is you're attending high school out of the county yes all right so there's a possibility that we may not be able to transport you out of the county all right we want to check with me after this session okay good evening everybody um my name is Erica fur I am a parent of a second grader who attends philis C Williams Spanish emerging school I have a couple questions but I'm gon try to make it quick I want to make sure I understand my son rolled the school bus kindergarten in first grade are you saying if I did not register in parent view that information was not transferred over because I filled out something from Transportation twice but I continue to get emails asking for it again um I don't remember what it it was the transportation update I think I filled it like in May and I called Transportation they told me they couldn't give me an update until Friday so I don't know what I need to do so if you were previously enrolled that information is carried over okay okay what probably is being requested now is some type of address verification that and that's where um that's new and this is part of that informational technology team with the um implementation of our new parent system Synergy parent information system so they would like for you to do a type of an address verification okay all right so that's what that probably um repetitive response is your child still gets a bus stop thank you yeah that doesn't change as long as they're in Synergy and it would AOL over okay right and then that information is here so have you created your parent view account no all right that's maybe I did I don't know that's new that's your homework for theight new yes that's new no I did not we need to get that so you might need to call um PE Williams and ask them for the link so that you can create your parent view account that parent view account is very similar to the school max Parent Portal from last year that's what I had okay at that portal contains all of your information related to your child attendance grade Transportation assignments right so it's very crucial that you have that account created because that's where I'm going to push the transport information too now in addition you got it on your stop finder app that I hope youve downloaded as well okay so may I speak about that I requested the stop finder app and I'm not exaggerating probably 10 times I requested it in what I was told and this is back two years ago and then also last year that I had to wait for an email to do or a confirmation to do something I never got it and I asked over and over and then I just gave up so we need to verify your email it's correct right so whatever email that you have listed in parent view or in the old school max system in the SchoolMax portal not anything that when you registered with the register of the school this would be the phone number and and email address that you put in that SchoolMax Parent Portal that's the information that I get and so we send those invitations out uh right now we're going to send them out every seven days and it would not oh gosh I would hamper it would have pgs welcome to pgs stop finder would be the email title of this and in that email um message it tells you quick information and it gives you a link um an activation link you can easily go to Google Play store or or the app Apple app and download the app okay but you can't activate it until you get this invitation from us so if you want to hang around at the end of this meeting give me your email I'll make sure that we can get you something pretty quick okay appreciate that problem I got one more I have a suggest sure and I'm paint a picture because I want y'all to get this so my son is in the second grade he's small you know lower grade he doesn't understand how to navigate this is it possible for there to be some sort of communication and I mean like old fashion paper Communication in a folder for substitute drivers my son goes to a before and after care the window for pickup time is like an hour sometimes an hour and a half he the he's not going to stand outside for an hour and a half like that's just not reasonable I have to like ask the driver over and over and over it's almost like there's an entrance in the parking lot there there and my son is always about where you guys that's where the door is the driver pulls in the first day of school this happened kindergarten and first grade they pull in this in this entrance drive that way and pull right out and they do that for about five maybe about three or four times until um sometimes we have to chase them I've had to do that like Chase the driver to get them and I've asked um the transportation different locations to just communicate with the driver they're not going to remember all of it just like a oldfashioned sheet of paper to let them know you've got to pull in the parking lot he'll be waiting but you got to pull in once the driver gets it because it's not hard right the substitutes don't get it they never get it I've had to leave work last school year probably eight times when there's a sub I just expect it there's a substitute driver they pull in they don't see a kid and they drive right out so just a old a folder with just like special instruction pull all the way in so that they know I think that could alleviate a lot of problems it can and thank you for that suggestion may I ask uh the after before and after CARE program was it at Robert Goddard or is it where where your location no it's not at Robert gard it's near um our home gotcha okay all right good deal thank you for that suggestion though the only other thing that I would like to add given the fact that we are live streaming is that to this parents uh experience if you are having concerns with your registration process or with your parent view access or uh uh please follow up with your school registar uh at your building uh and they can help support getting that parent view uh activated and then you'll get the stop finder link so we want to make certain that we also involve our school teams uh because they're prepared and ready to support hello my name is yanan that's Tu n I'm a parent my uh children will be going to Francis fuches wonderful job at Francis fuches I know someone works there and a scotch toown Hills Elementary my qu I have two questions so I just want to confirm that I somewhat understand in the event that there's an issue with stop finder or just something outside of the control of stop finder where maybe it's a um application uh I'm sorry uh phone provider issue or anything like that and we're not able to get that application to find our kids what is the process of notification for the schools is there a process I didn't fully understand that I know was asked a few different ways so just so I'm clear just communication if the stop finder app fails if I not even if it fails if I can't get it so for example I think not too long ago we had some blackouts right remember the airlines can and that had nothing to do with the people providing the service but a infrastructure underlying issue where we may just not be able to that's it so in cases of that nature it will be something that probably affect the entire district and we would send out a message um to let you know if the app is is down or not and then as an alternative it may be where we will send messages through the school messenger app about status of any buses primarily if that bus is running late okay and you as a parent have that option then to call in to our car call center uh because we do have our folks at the call center that are still monitoring our buses by GPS and they can kind of relate the information or relate location where that bus is at that point in time okay so low Tech calling the center there other Hightech uh options are available such as the messenger app and so on and so forth yes and then I guess last would be maybe called the school yes okay and then my next question is just about the life cycle of registration and changes so if I have not registered through the parent viw app and let's say I registered today I would give it 3 to 5 days before getting my invit or what's that can you go through the life cycle for us for expectations so when you register you want to make sure um that the registration has gone completely through that may take 24 to 48 hours okay so from that date I need 3 to 5 days to give transportation information back to you okay okay because I can't I just I get downloads every night and so depending on when you enter your data or when you register students um that is dependent on the time of day and whether or not that information be transmitted to me that night or it may come the next day okay um the day after so I can't predict that okay I'm going to take it even a step make it super super simple so the 3 to five days have now passed on that fifth or sixth day my expectation should be to see that invitation for stop finder yes okay and then if I don't see the invitation for stop finder but I have registered um I have requested the application would I be able to re-trigger that email or how can I re-trigger that email for some reason I can't find it so the re-trigger the email the easiest way would do the TRS um that's the the my resolution system where you can put in the request to send you to resend the invitation automatically we send invitations every s every seven days um for anyone that did not activate their account so super Layman for the new folks where am I finding TRS is that just on the website I'm sorry yes ma'am so that's a a website TRS pgcps.org uh it is on the transportation page of the school district website so uh it is listed in our TR excuse me in our FAQs too many acronyms right so it's listed in our FAQ under the transportation web page okay yeah and all of this information that I'm speaking of tonight can be found in our on our transportation page last question um for then I'm already registered I have stopped finder I I think it's the best thing since sliced bread I want to make a change and I go through the regist what would be the expectation for seeing the changes then let's say the second week of school and a first week of school's going to be kind of out of control that same three to five days okay so that's depending on what type of change you're making okay and then the if it's the opt out that I can do in the app is that still the same three to five days as well yes okay thank you so much thank you I had another question if I lived in the same county but in different cities and my high school was in a different city than I lived in would the bus still come pick me up yes you have to be a resident in the county um and be a resident of a school within the county for um transportation all right if there's circumstances outside of that um I can I'm happy to talk to you and your parents after the session because it may be a case by case that um is outside of our general pro procedures okay all right okay and just to that previous parent when you asked about the opt out because sometimes you know family circumstances do change uh we do encourage our families to as these changes occur and if you determine that uh transportation is no longer needed then certainly you can press forward with the opt out uh and if your situation does change again and you need a bus uh reassigned then certainly if you're still eligible for that bus then it will be reassigned to you so the opt out is not one and done it can be adjusted based on the needs of the family so that's why we encourage uh families to opt out if they no longer need Transportation knowing you can get it back if the need arises [Music] good afternoon my name is haime I have two children in the school system one attend bugl rosenville my question is one of my children is a walker I have um both of my children's are Walker my question is in regards to the amount of walking that they're doing one is closer and the other one has to walk farther how do I how do you guys how can you guys help me address why one has to walk more than the other one and and the uh School [Music] from a high schooler um where the bus is scheduled to pick up is very dangerous and there are no sidewalks and that she has to do he or she have to do a lot of walking um in regards to the lights there are no signals no stops so what would be the possibility of being able to be assigned a new stop where it will minimize the amount of walking in between streets and no signs or no sidewalks available okay so first off thank you so much for being here I remember you from the last Transportation information session we had Ellena Roosevelt so we appreciate uh your engagement um with respect to the walk distance I'm starting to hear that there is a bus but then there wasn't a bus so I'm I'm a little unclear on that but if there the child is in the non-transportation zone meaning you live close enough to the school that no bus is assigned for secondary students that would be 2 miles for elementary students that's 1.5 miles now every child who's Elementary or secondary doesn't have that distance to walk the before the audit the average distance to walk to stop was .24 mil and it was increased to an average of 46 miles so it can fall anywhere in that range but our secondary students do walk a little further uh I don't know if you want to add if you could speak to the uh assessment of the bus stop the bus stops um what we spent primarily from February through August evaluating bus stops uh we kind of used a national tool that gave us some parameters that we followed and where we saw discretion we did relocate those stops but where we did not and it was determined that it was still safe we kept those in place so what you see now is as a result of some intense viewing and and and and evaluating bus stops if there still is a concern I invite you to use the TRS system and put that concern in there so we can address it for further for you okay [Music] fore [Music] for for fore I have a child that attended bul elementary school last year my concern was that the bus was not coming on time it would be an hour late two hours late sometimes the bus never showed up I um try calling transportation that was never able to get any assistance um I spoke to the school about it and all they told me was you need to call Transportation there was a group of parent of us that um were experiencing the same issue with our children not being picked up so we would hire a taxi who drove them to the school the problem with that was that by this time by the time our children arried at school they were late so they were marked absent so that that created a domino effect where my child was being Mark absent because um attendance is taken at the first period Then I would go to the school and say no my child was here yet they would say well we need some type of justification so get in contact with the transportation area my question directly to you is this year she will be attending a different school not Buck lash bug lash Elementary so if this was to happen again what should I do or who should I contact in order to avoid having the same situation as last year so thank you so much for that question the it it really encapsulates why we have a transportation action plan to begin with uh we are uh understanding uh that we've had an issue with buses getting to school on time uh as a result we have a multi-year plan that we're implementing that started with adjusting school bell times to give us a better opportunity uh to balance the routes from tier one to tier 2 meaning the 7:30 time start times the 8:30 start times and the 9:30 start times uh and to to provide us a better opport un to get students to school on time um so that's the first thing in addition to that the consolidation of bus stops the walk Zone audit the uh opt out all of those recommendations work together uh to help us get students to school on time on a more consistent basis so we appreciate and we've heard from our community uh that this has happened too often uh and it's something we're working to rectify uh with respect to the second part of the question I'm going to turn it to director when to speak to uh the school notification around buses and when they arrive and and how we can work to make certain that those students are not marked absent or tardy that was a great question um we've gotten a lot of feedback from that uh one suggestion that we would take is to ensure if if a child is um arriving to school other than by bus and it is after the bail time it is important that you give the school the route number because the schools track whether or not the buses or what time the buses arrive so they will see what buses arrive on time and what buses arrive late and compare that um to the timing of your student because they can see the bus assignments themselves so that should help alleviate that if the bus is running late uh or arrives late at school you can ask them to check their chart um with the route number and what time that bus arrives hi I'm marasa Henderson h n d r s o n her question also reminded me that the second part of my question hadn't been answered um to her Point uh when school when buses uh the the times change sometimes I had a student in a summerbridge program this summer and I thought we missed the bus two days in a row um the third day I received an email and said hey was she at the new stop and I said oh well where's the new stop and then they communicated the new stop and the time and the time was 20 minutes earlier and I was like well how would I know as a parent that that time had changed so back to my original question what is the what is the consist protocol that Transportation follows so that all schools know when a bus hasn't come or when a bus is going to be late so that we don't have that kind of marking absent issue and also again so that schools can consistently communicate to parents hey we know that your bus either is going to leave 30 minutes late or didn't arrive or had a traffic accident and then um Bus Time Changes how will those be communicated because when I called the call center and said hey look I found out my bus time changed they said well the bus driver should have told you the afternoon before well she had a substitute bus driver the afternoon before so we just thought we kept missing the bus so great point and those were all action items to address so this year part of what we are doing again is having that one person um at the bus lot who can send notifications so that is through the school messenger app as well as our stock finder app with push notifications and the rooc calls text emails so that's how we want to proactively keep you involved on the bus status from that standpoint the schools will be included in that information or in those calls as well um because I know many do um they use a class dojo and they may be able to send blast out to parents of that nature so um what's different from this year uh from last year is that we're taking a more proactive approach to maintain the bus status and pushing that information out whether you know we don't in the past it may not have been sent out until parent calls so we have improved some of our software to track buses better uh from our communication end so that we can push information out if there is a change so if we have to change the times on a bus route usually there's a limit um I think 15 minutes within 15 minutes or less those changes it's updated through the app all right and it may be given by the bus driver to say we may push back our times five minutes or we're pushing up our Times by five minutes that information gets transmitted back to our routing system in which we then can update the route which then translates to your stop finder account and you can see that those times changes in the stop finder app that that hasn't been done in the past this is going to be new so to kind of balance out those changes whatever you see in stop finder that account that and and parent view those will be your times now we we talk about those times but we also say you have to give us 10 minutes before 10 minutes after because nothing works on time because we can't control traffic situations of that nature but generally in that time frame we want to make sure that we have that arrival time okay did that did we get all of it want to make sure all right well if you it's if it's not going to be necessarily alert um it's it's only going to be if it's more than 15 minutes in a change we do a letter and and actually that letter gets sent to the school to actually give to the students so um that's a big change when you think about 15 minutes some more uh so we do have that process where we do put a letter um to the school and we depend on the school to kind of pass that out to the students on that on that bus route okay and we got someone else I got one more can you or or either any of you let me know or let us know if you decide because I'm assuming you have to go back and discuss it to take some of our suggestions um particularly M with a substitute communication folder that's placed on the bus so um when there's a substitute and you know what I mean they or like first day of school they're like oh no we've got this communication folder we know to pull all the way in so how will I know if you decided to take this suggestion the only reason I'm asking obviously because I want to know but when I made the suggestion to his driver kindergarten and first grade um I said why don't you just like leave a a note for the substitute to let him know to pull in they both said we can't we can't do that so I'm like okay I don't know what kind of rule that is but how will I know if decided to take it so realistically when we take these suggestions it's for everyone right and each lot has a um they have their own they have protocols that we follow so we already have a folder like that um but what I'm interested in I have to do a little bit more searching because I want to find out if it's just your area if it's someone else I need to make sure that it's not isolated and that if this is occurring across the board then I want to make sure I can address it fully so I like to do my homework first but I have taken your suggestion and taking a look at it because chances are when I go back and do my own research uh I'll find out the reason why it's occurring as such and it may be something that we can tweak um just by having you know an update meeting between the bus slots and we can solve it right then and there to alleviate that okay okay okay but I can't give you a push notification when it's done um I for uh my name is hman again um I have a suggestion um last year I Buck lash Elementary a buckl the issue was that when you were tardy because of Transportation when my child arrived at school they were not given a tardy pass is that something that could be probably be communicated to the school so that if a child is late due to Transportation the teacher is aware of it and then they don't get marked tardy or absent for the day thank you sure as a matter of reg thank you for your question as a matter of reg regular practice schools do track uh the arrival times of buses and they know the number of buses that they have each morning uh and so they do typically pass out a tardy notice uh to students that excuses them for being late in the morning if it's the reason if the reason they're late is because of the bus uh so each school also has staff in the main office that supports the attendance function of that building uh and so that is something that certainly we can follow up with that particular school but that's a regular practice in our district good evening my name is Doyle I have a child that attends Phyllis E Williams um Elementary School I'm um forgive me if I asking a question that was asked before but um for this school year will the the bus stop be the same location as it was last year and is there anything that I need to do to make sure that um sorry is there anything I need to do to make sure we have or she's on the bus list or schedule for this school year I'll answer it in reverse order U uh director Bob answer the piece around the bus stop location for this year but what we would ask every parent to do is one make sure that you sign up in parent view okay two make sure that you activate your stop finder app and then third set up your Geo alerts preferably a Geo alert around the bus stop and a second Geo alert around the school if we have every parent do those three things then you'll have full functionality of the app and it will provide you with an opportunity to see the bus travel along its route it'll allow you to get push notific ations that when the bus passes by the bus stop and when it drops your child off at school or in the afternoon when it get when their child gets picked up from school and when they get dropped off back at the bus stop you'll also be able to see the bus stop information right there in the app and you can share it with a family member with your child if you'd like uh so they can also see the same information so activating Parview with an active email address signing up for the Stop finder app and then Activa those setting up those Geo alerts will go a long way towards giving you the information that we hear our families want and so director Baldwin's gonna speak to the bus stop piece okay you may have covered that already Dr Coleman but in order to know your bus stop location you can log into the parent view account and see if your stop has changed or not okay um if it has not you're good if it has it gives you an opportunity to see where it is and and assess what you need to do for the beginning of the school year okay thank you all right good evening my name is Guy Del excuse my voice I have two children that goes to different schools one is uh attending um Dora Kennedy immersion a French immersion uh school and the other one is ADV vanville with the job uh the stock finder how would you advise us to process in order for us parents to to know uh at what time the bus will be coming to those two location to pick up those two kids one is 6 years old and the other one is 8 years old so just to kind of reiterate what Dr com mentioned it's important that you create your parent view account okay um and again also activate your stop finder account it will within the stop finder account it would automatically populate your two students okay and you will be able to see their times and Bus locations for each school for each student the same thing in parent view if you access that you will be able to see the student assignment and their transportation assignments as well in the same way so do that if there are issues with the parent view side please contact your school to make sure you can activate and access that correctly if it's with your stop finder you're welcome to do the TRS system with us and we will send you an uh an email um again we've already started this process of sending emails um activate with the activation links and that process will happen every seven days um you're welcome to share information with me um at the end of this and I'll be happy to check on it and and kind of follow up with you this see if an account has been U activated or email has been sent okay all right thanks so much MH and just to reiterate and thank you so much for the question and I I believe that director Balwin spoke to it earlier in the presentation the reason that we are pushing as a district so hard for families to sign up for parent view is it is a One-Stop student information uh system hub for families to get a lot of information uh they'll be able to see student grades there assignment uh scores there they'll be able to see student attendance in addition they'll be able to act activate their stop finder app receive School messenger emails through parent view uh they'll be able to see transcripts uh graduation status uh you can update your phone numbers for for School contact and update your emergency uh information uh for emergency contacts so there is a lot of information Beyond just Transportation uh that is in the parent view uh portal and so we want to make certain and really encourage every family to take advantage of this tool to stay in communication uh with the school and also with Transportation I have hello my name is Yanti Twan that's tan I'm a parent I have the two kids Francis fukes and Scott Town um Hills Elementary question about kind of the is this the right place to ask questions about the procedures kind of on the bus transporting the kids once we have stopped finder and all of that it would be yes ma'am okay so um I I have someone that's going to kindergarten so I'm used to the bus environment for kind of just the smaller kids I don't know what the process or the environment is for the elementary school since you uh most of the schools have kindergarten the sixth grade is there any particular protocol are there bus attendants on there all that stuff I'm new to the county I don't know any of that or is that something for the registar as well I should be asking a it's a great question here so with our younger prek kindergarteners we do require a safety vest and this is something that will be provided by the school and it is a partnership with the school and the parent that every morning that your your kindergarten has the vest on prior to loading the bus and the school puts the vest on uh prior to loading the bus in the afternoon we do require an adult to be at the bus stop to do a hand toand delivery of our prek kindergarten students um the indication is through the vest and so this is how we work not to allow the younger generation off the bus without going to someone they know so that's probably the biggest piece to know about a kindergarten riding the bus is that they do require a safety vest um it is provided by the school and that we need to have someone at the bus stop to pick up the child that is something that we establish with the parent and the driver our bus drivers know any student with a vest they do not release unless it is too an adult so there's no one at the stop for that student they keep that child on the bus and then we um they radio us and we try to make phone calls and find out where the status before we have to take them back to school okay and then for kind of like the seating location or any of that kind of thing so our drivers know to sit students the younger generation closer to the front of the bus um that's usually how it happens um unless there's a sibling and they want to sit with a sibling from that nature so but we try not to put students the younger generation to the back of the bus thank you other than that is any bus um there is a AP 5221 it talks about our school bus conduct and it's also in the student code of conduct as well so that gives you more information about bus management um responsibilities the student and it also talks about some of the parent responsibility as well hi good evening my name is Rosa Cruz uh last name spelled c u z I'm also having a new kindergarten right the bus this school year so I'm trying to get as much as information that I can for her to be ready and just prepared um so follow up to her question so then the bus driver is going to be sitting the kindergarteners when they're at the bus inside the bus they will have seating assignments um again typically to the front of the bus uh if our generated buses primarily do not have attendance so it's just a bus driver so once the students get on board they will have assigned seating or areas where they can sit um for for SA travel to school okay and um when will we get the vest from the school do we call them or are they going to call us you can call um I'm not sure about student orientation uh when they offer that um it's for orientation typically yes and the orientation day is the 23rd the Friday before the first day of school uh and that's an opportunity to take care of that part of it and get the vest to make certain we're ready for the first day on the 26 okay great thank you and welcome to PGCPS Dr Jackson hearing none we're going to go ahead and turn it back over to you for closing remarks um I did want to say thank you to all of our families for coming out this evening and for everyone who watched online thank you director Cunningham uh and thank you director Baldwin for the work that you all have done uh all summer uh and through the spring uh in preparation for the fall I certainly appreciate both of you as well as your teams they have worked tirelessly and we're really excited and looking forward to uh the beginning of this school year so with that I'm going to turn it back over to Dr Jack thank you Dr Coleman and our wonderful leadership team that's here tonight um again when we start it we say we like to start on time we like to end on time so we're going to be able to turn you a free uh to be able to go we just have a few closing remarks as as do Coleman started we have fabulous uh Prince George's County Public School staff that have been here with us tonight they were with us last night and they will be with us tomorrow night at Oxen Hill High School so if you have additional questions and you want to make that trip down to Oxen Hill please feel free to do so um we have handouts on the table outside as you leave that have additional uh information sessions for families that are sponsored by Our Family Institute uh right away in September there will be sessions on parent view there will be sessions on Synergy just to help continue to support us all in this transition process uh we also have an evaluation QR code on the table out front uh we would like to ask you to please scan to give us feedback about tonight's session as well as use this as an opportunity to share any additional thoughts or questions that you may have we have staff that have been here with us with I ads recording every question that was asked every answer that was given that will be turned into information to help again inform our staff about maybe other frequently asked questions from across the system that we need to make sure we have available so other than that I again I want to thank everyone thank this wonderful School High Point High School and their staff for welcoming us here tonight and we ask that everyone please be safe as you travel home tonight and good night