Episode 263: Parents Can Follow the Progress of Their Child’s School Bus

You can follow the progress of your child’s Jordan District school bus for pickup and drop off with an optional app that is easy to use and brings parents some peace of mind.



On this episode of the Supercast, we hear all about Zonar MyView. It’s an app that allows parents to check on their own child’s school bus location and the estimated time of arrival at the bus stop each day. Thousands are already using the app, could it be useful to you as well? Listen and find out.



Audio Transcription


Paul Bergera:

So Zonar is a way for us to, it's a GPS tracking system and so Zonar allows us to monitor our buses.



Anthony Godfrey:

We decide where you want the notice. So okay it's going to take this much time for my child to walk to the bus stop. So I'm going to set it so that I know exactly when the bus is close enough that we need to head to the bus stop.



Paul Bergera:

That's correct.

[Music]


Anthony Godfrey:

Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. You can follow the progress of your child's Jordan District School bus for pickup and drop off with an optional app that is easy to use and brings parents peace of mind.



On this episode of the Supercast, we hear all about Zonar MyView. It's an app that allows parents to check on their own child's school bus location and the estimated time of arrival at the bus stop each day. Thousands are already using the app. Could it be useful for you as well? Listen and find out.

[Music]


We're here at the Transportation Department with three of our transportation experts to talk about Zonar. Introduce yourselves and then let's talk a little bit about this great app for parents.



Paul Bergera:

Thank you, Superintendent. I'm Paul Bergera, the Director of Transportation.



Debbie McKinlay:

I'm Debbie McKinlay. I work with the Zonar app.



Mary Anne Balfour:

And I'm Mary Anne Balfour. I work in dispatch.



Anthony Godfrey:

Tell me a little bit about what Zonar is. So for parents listening who may not be familiar, what does the Zonar app do for families?



Paul Bergera:

So Zonar is a way for us to– it's a GPS tracking system. And so Zonar allows us to monitor our buses. It tells us when a door is open, how fast it's going, how long it stopped at a stop. The MyView parent app is a component of Zonar and that's really a tool for parents and schools to be able to use to simply be able to track their bus. Know when it's going to be coming into a certain zone that the parents will set up. Just a really good tool for parents and schools to have in order to track school buses.



Anthony Godfrey:

So it's an easy tool to find out where your child's bus is in real time.



Paul Bergera:

Correct. Absolutely.



Anthony Godfrey:

So tell us how do they get the app. Their favorite app store, they look for Zonar.



Paul Bergera:

Yes. They look for the Zonar MyView app. And if they would like step-by-step instructions, there's only four steps. From downloading the app to the completion of getting signed up for the MyView app.



Anthony Godfrey:

Tell us about what they need to do.



Paul Bergera:

So the first thing they would want to do is download the Zonar MyView app from the Apple app store or Google Play. They would enter the school access code, which they can find online or on a handout that their bus driver can give them. They enter their child's unique student ID, which is their student ID they use in Skyward. And then they create alert zones around drop-off and pickup points. It's really that simple.



Anthony Godfrey:

So you decide where you want the notice. So, okay, it's going to take this much time for my child to walk to the bus stop. So I'm going to set it so that I know exactly when the bus is close enough that we need to head to the bus stop.



Paul Bergera:

That's correct. Yeah, absolutely. And a lot of people set it up with, you know, an alert that's maybe seven minutes. Brush your teeth. An alert that's three minute, grab your backpack.



So people can have fun with it and play around to determine where those zones are. They establish their own zones and what kind of an alert kind of comes at them.



Anthony Godfrey:

Now, this comes in handy on a regular day, but it particularly comes in handy on a day where we might have a little bit of weather, not enough weather to delay or to close school, but really enough weather that maybe the buses are running a little bit behind.



Paul Bergera:

Absolutely. A day kind of like maybe today, a little rain, a little wet. It also, as the days become darker, it just gives parents that sense of comfort that their students aren't necessarily waiting at a bus stop longer than they need to.



Anthony Godfrey:

Yeah. So if it's dark or it's rainy, then if it's a dark and stormy day, then you can make sure that your child isn't at the bus stop earlier than they need to be.



Paul Bergera:

That's correct. That's correct. And really, like I mentioned earli...