The bus is here

MILTON — Santa Rosa County Schools have been back in session for two weeks and buses have been busy on routes. Student Transportation of America, the company that is in charge of buses for the county is facing multiple issues.

Denis Gallagher, Vice President of Operations for the southwest, issued a letter to the county outlining the issues. Those included problems with the radio communication on buses during the first week, the public’s inability to communicate with office staff due to low staffing, and an error in the functionality of the newly designed “SafeStop” app.

According to its website, SafeStop is a school bus tracking app. It offers real-time school bus updates, showing parents and school administrators where the bus is along its route, while the estimated times of arrival are displayed for each bus stop. Transportation staff also has the ability to send real-time service notifications to parents.

“We were overly excited to bring this technology to you as a means of providing you real time information on the location of your bus,” Gallagher said. “The inaccuracy of the ETA’s is common during the first few weeks of school as routes are adjusted and students are added.”

The radio communication issues, according to Gallagher, were due to improper installation of the radios on the buses. The repeater on top of Navarre High School also needed to be realigned after the roof was replaced.

“We sincerely apologize for the inconveniences these first few weeks and ask again for your patience," Gallagher said in his letter. “Please know that STA and the local Santa Rosa transportation staff members are doing all we can to improve the service.”

Jud Crane, Director of Purchasing and Contract Administration for Santa Rosa County School District, said that even though the SafeStop app encountered problems during the first week of school, he believes it will greatly impact the district.

“It is getting better,” Crane said.

STA has a manager onsite, according to Crane, to help handle issues. Even though they had hoped SafeStop would work perfect upon launch, he said he realizes there are variances that can come up.  

“We really don’t know who is going to get on the bus that first day,” Crane said. “The app monitors the route using GPS and it will adapt and change.”

Crane said this app updates every 30 seconds. Parents should know the bus will not show up on the app until 30 minutes before it is scheduled to arrive and it will not be visible on the app 30 minutes after its arrival, he said.

This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: The bus is here