Golden Hills tests out bus video surveillance

Times Reporter      

 

A new pilot project aimed at improving transportation and safety is happening now in the Golden Hills School Division (GHSD). Over the next little while GHSD school buses will periodically have video surveillance on them. 

“This whole project with cameras on our buses is a bit of a pilot project. We recognize that the bus driver’s job is a very complex job, the safety of our students is the number one priority and they’ve got a lot to manage,” said Superintendant of Schools Bevan Daverne. 

“They have traffic to watch for, they have a big bus they’re driving and they have to keep an eye on students while they’re on the bus as well. We’re looking for ways to be a support for the driver and also looking for ways to improve our experience for students wherever that’s a possibility.”

Notifications about the video surveillance can be found through the school websites and GHSD’s website. Some of the schools were also informing parents through their school’s Facebook page.

“The biggest thing for us is we want to clearly communicate and let people know what’s happening,” said Daverne.

Other school districts have also tested out this path, either with cameras inside the buses or outside of them. In GHSD the goal, for now, is to try out the cameras in the buses and see what sort of impact, if any, that it makes. The GHSD transportation department will be looking for feedback from parents, students and bus drivers at the end of the project to see what benefits the cameras have.

In every school district there can and are disciplinary issues on buses, and with 3,000 students taking buses in GHSD every day that’s something that doesn’t happen a lot here, but does happen from time to time. 

“We don’t have a lot of bus discipline problems but this is a way we can get more clarity if a situation occurs and as well it’s just sort of an extra pair of eyes, as it were, for the driver,” said Daverne. 

GHSD is taking some cues from other districts that have invested in the cameras and have noticed positive benefits from it. 

“We’re looking at a bunch of areas with our transportation department right now. We’re looking at enhanced communication with parents and other ways that technology can help us with transportation,” said Daverne. 

“Once you start thinking down that path there’s a whole bunch of different options.  Some districts are putting cameras outside the busses to help with traffic control and those kinds of initiatives. We really want our kids to be safe and so when the bus stops and the little stop sign pops out, we want to ensure that cars are stopping as well.”

Cameras on the bus are just a little step in trying to ensure the service, and the safety of the students and the drivers.