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It starts out as a normal day and then suddenly two students get into a fight on the school bus.
The other students are getting restless as the two enraged students continue to argue, scratch, claw and punch one another.
The bus driver sees the actions and radios back to the bus barn, asking for help. Police are then notified.
The driver then pulls the bus over, and with officers help, separates the two students to break up the fight.
As the bus pulls into the school’s parking lot, an administrator is waiting to talk with the students.
Without the radio, the bus driver would not have been able to alert the bus barn, who then would not have alerted the school to have an administrator to escort the students directly to the office.
This scenario is one that has happened to Simona Gonzales during her bus route for the Shawnee Public Schools district. And, she was thankful for the radio mounted in that bus.
“There was nothing I could do,” she said. “When you can’t do anything, they’re great.”
With the installed radio, she was able to contact dispatch who called the police and school to arrange for help.
This is just one reason the district has radios in buses. And, with the board of education’s approval to spend $25,000 of the General Fund, each of the district’s 30 buses will get an upgrade from analogue to digital radios, something John Wiles, SPS transportation director, said will be of great benefit.
“Digitals carry further, offer more range to be heard throughout the route,” he said.
Right now, the analogue system in place has a range of about 5 miles from the home base, Wiles said. The new range will be about 10 miles, which will cover all bus routes.
The current, 5-mile radius poses a problem for drivers like Wayne Heins, another SPS bus driver, who has to drive about 32 miles each day, and sometimes might not be in full radio contact with the bus barn, which is home base.
“I have a country route,” he said. “On occasion, the road is blocked off. I have to find an alternative route. I have to let people know I’m going to be late.”
In order to do that, Heins radioes back to the bus barn dispatcher, who then calls the school to inform administrators that the bus might be a little late. The new digital radios will enhance that communication by giving Heins more leeway when calling in updates regarding his route.
“We have to alert the schools the students will be a little late,” he said. “It’s a great communicator.”
Both drivers call the radios a lifeline.
“If we didn’t have radios I wouldn’t be driving a bus,” Heins said. “It’s the driver’s only lifeline.”
That lifeline helps the drivers ensure safety, Wiles said.
“Communication on radios happens all the time,” he said.
From discussing happenings on the buses to calling back to dispatch a mechanic or an ambulance for a medical emergency, the radios are a vital tool used daily by bus drivers, Wiles said.
“We use them for these kinds of things all the time,” he said.
In Heins’ first year driving, the radiator hose on his bus broke and he had to stop. He radioed back and said he needed a different bus and soon after, the other bus arrived.
“It’s kind of critical for mechanical issues,” Heins said.
The bottom line is that the students’ safety is the highest concern, Wiles said.
“We want to make sure we get these students there in the safest way possible,” he said. “I don’t know how we’d function without radios.”
The radios being purchased are similar to a citizens band radio, which tractor trailer drivers use to communicate with one another.
The digital radios will be mounted in the buses and drivers will be able to use a hand-held microphone, connected to the radio base.
The radios will comply with a federally-mandated switch to using all radios with a lower bandwidth to communicate, Wiles said. This will not affect the radios themselves, only what bandwidth they use to work, he said.
The new radios will also be GPS-ready, Wiles said. Once the district is able to purchase GPS software, each school bus will then be tracked by GPS to know exactly where it is, as well as what speed the bus is going.
“If I get delayed 10 or 15 minutes, those kids will get to school and not get to have breakfast,” Heins said. “The radio communication helps. I don’t think there is a day goes by I don’t have a reason to use the radio.”
The digital radios should be installed by mid-January.
David Harp, SPS business manager, said he also hopes to purchase hand-held digital radios for use at the school sites later in the year but, because of budget concerns, he did not believe right now was the proper time to ask for that funding.
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Josh Burton may reached by calling 214-3926.
It starts out as a normal day and then suddenly two students get into a fight on the school bus.
The other students are getting restless as the two enraged students continue to argue, scratch, claw and punch one another.
The bus driver sees the actions and radios back to the bus barn, asking for help. Police are then notified.
The driver then pulls the bus over, and with officers help, separates the two students to break up the fight.
As the bus pulls into the school’s parking lot, an administrator is waiting to talk with the students.
Without the radio, the bus driver would not have been able to alert the bus barn, who then would not have alerted the school to have an administrator to escort the students directly to the office.
This scenario is one that has happened to Simona Gonzales during her bus route for the Shawnee Public Schools district. And, she was thankful for the radio mounted in that bus.
“There was nothing I could do,” she said. “When you can’t do anything, they’re great.”
With the installed radio, she was able to contact dispatch who called the police and school to arrange for help.
This is just one reason the district has radios in buses. And, with the board of education’s approval to spend $25,000 of the General Fund, each of the district’s 30 buses will get an upgrade from analogue to digital radios, something John Wiles, SPS transportation director, said will be of great benefit.
“Digitals carry further, offer more range to be heard throughout the route,” he said.
Right now, the analogue system in place has a range of about 5 miles from the home base, Wiles said. The new range will be about 10 miles, which will cover all bus routes.
The current, 5-mile radius poses a problem for drivers like Wayne Heins, another SPS bus driver, who has to drive about 32 miles each day, and sometimes might not be in full radio contact with the bus barn, which is home base.
“I have a country route,” he said. “On occasion, the road is blocked off. I have to find an alternative route. I have to let people know I’m going to be late.”
In order to do that, Heins radioes back to the bus barn dispatcher, who then calls the school to inform administrators that the bus might be a little late. The new digital radios will enhance that communication by giving Heins more leeway when calling in updates regarding his route.
“We have to alert the schools the students will be a little late,” he said. “It’s a great communicator.”
Both drivers call the radios a lifeline.
“If we didn’t have radios I wouldn’t be driving a bus,” Heins said. “It’s the driver’s only lifeline.”
That lifeline helps the drivers ensure safety, Wiles said.
“Communication on radios happens all the time,” he said.
From discussing happenings on the buses to calling back to dispatch a mechanic or an ambulance for a medical emergency, the radios are a vital tool used daily by bus drivers, Wiles said.
“We use them for these kinds of things all the time,” he said.
In Heins’ first year driving, the radiator hose on his bus broke and he had to stop. He radioed back and said he needed a different bus and soon after, the other bus arrived.
“It’s kind of critical for mechanical issues,” Heins said.
The bottom line is that the students’ safety is the highest concern, Wiles said.
“We want to make sure we get these students there in the safest way possible,” he said. “I don’t know how we’d function without radios.”
The radios being purchased are similar to a citizens band radio, which tractor trailer drivers use to communicate with one another.
The digital radios will be mounted in the buses and drivers will be able to use a hand-held microphone, connected to the radio base.
The radios will comply with a federally-mandated switch to using all radios with a lower bandwidth to communicate, Wiles said. This will not affect the radios themselves, only what bandwidth they use to work, he said.
The new radios will also be GPS-ready, Wiles said. Once the district is able to purchase GPS software, each school bus will then be tracked by GPS to know exactly where it is, as well as what speed the bus is going.
“If I get delayed 10 or 15 minutes, those kids will get to school and not get to have breakfast,” Heins said. “The radio communication helps. I don’t think there is a day goes by I don’t have a reason to use the radio.”
The digital radios should be installed by mid-January.
David Harp, SPS business manager, said he also hopes to purchase hand-held digital radios for use at the school sites later in the year but, because of budget concerns, he did not believe right now was the proper time to ask for that funding.
———
Josh Burton may reached by calling 214-3926.
