On paper – or more likely a computer screen – Durango School District 9-R’s plan to install tracking on school buses to read student identification cards looks good.
The system would allow 9-R to track a student’s whereabouts, recording when he or she boards a specific bus, and when and where that student steps off. That information could be accessed in the event a student does not arrive at an expected time and place.
The district is right to be concerned about losing track of any student heading to or from school. And 9-R’s solution looks promising. In a perfect world, that is.
Forgive our skepticism, then, because the often hectic business of getting young children to and from the doors of a school bus is about as far from perfect as one can get.
Start with the card, which can also be used, eventually, to check out library books and purchase lunch. Start there, if you can find it. Because school children, especially young ones, lose things all the time. Jackets, mittens, boots and books. Even entire backpacks. And once lost, many items are not recovered, even from the lost and found bins.
If a card is lost (or even, in a twist on that time-honored excuse for missing homework, eaten by the family dog), does that mean the child will not be allowed to board the bus for a ride to school or a ride home?
And what of the ongoing costs for replacement cards, software updates and repair and maintenance on the equipment? Keeping systems like these running can involve surprising expenses.
This might be a dependable way to track the bus travels of the district’s older students. But is this the highest priority on the district’s list of how to best spend the additional funds approved by voters when ballot measure 3A passed in November? The initial cost, $80,000, might be better applied to teacher salaries in a school district that has been letting teachers go due to budget concerns.
In that perfect world, this would strike us as a good investment. In La Plata County today, we are not so sure.
