Frisco | August 2023

EDUCATION Student ID initiative could increase safety, eciency across Frisco ISD

2023 EDUCATION EDITION

hundreds of daily bus routes, Castor said. “This is an additional layer of safety as well because the tablet is going to cover everything that that driver needs to know,” Castor said. In the event of an emergency, the new bus system can be a way to verify the exact location of each student. An app for parents to easily track the location of the bus and see noti- cations of when and where their child got on or o is slated to be released

SCAN HERE The district hopes to have student IDs at all campuses by the 2024-25 school year.

Funding for the IDs was included in the approved bond package Student IDs are introduced at two elementary schools Student IDs are introduced at a total of 6 intermediate, middle and high schools Bus tracker app “MyRide K-12” projected to launch Student IDs are to be implemented district wide

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BY ALEX REECE

schools “This will give us multiple

Students at eight Frisco ISD schools will be starting the 2023-24 school year with ID cards for bus rides, cafeteria purchases and more as ocials work to extend the new program district wide. “This is going to be a game changer for our operations,” Transportation Managing Director Jerad Castor said. Funding to establish the ID program was included in the district’s November 2018 bond. The framework Corbell and Riddle elementary schools were the rst campuses to introduce the new student IDs in 2022. The next six campuses being added to the initiative in 2023-24 are: • Wortham Intermediate School • Clark, Cobb and Nelson middle schools • Independence and Wakeland high

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perspectives on how to launch the project district wide, which we plan on doing for the [2024-25] school year,” Castor said. Why it matters Buses servic- ing the eight campuses using ID cards will

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before the end of the 2023-24 school year, Castor said. “We want to make sure that we are very quick and ecient in order to be as safe as possible,” Castor said.

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THIS IS GOING TO BE A GAME CHANGER FOR OUR OPERATIONS. JERAD CASTOR, TRANSPORTATION MANAGING DIRECTOR

SOURCE: FRISCO ISDCOMMUNITY IMPACT

have a tablet and scanner for stu- dents to tap their ID onto that will instantly pull up their information

typically either tell sta their name or punch in their ID number. Before introducing the cards, it would take students at one school researched by the district 12 minutes to get through the lunch line, Castor said. After the ID cards were intro- duced, it dropped to 6 minutes. Feedback on the student IDs has been overall supportive from both principals and parents, Castor said.

for the driver. Those without IDs will only be let on the bus after verifying their name so the driver can look it up manually. The tablets also function as a nav- igation tool by saving the district’s

What else? Giving students IDs in cafeterias and libraries will also increase eciency for both students and sta, Castor said. In cafeterias, students

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FRISCO EDITION • AUGUST 2023