Students and parents in the Shawnee Mission School District are heading for a significantly more tech-centric bus riding experience next school year, now that school board members have approved a seven-year contract with Zum, a Redwood City, California, company.
Expectations were high last month as the Shawnee Mission Board of Education gave unanimous approval to engage Zum (pronounced Zoom) at an estimated $21 million a year and an $18 million initial cost.
In return, Zum advertises a completely air-conditioned fleet and modernized tracking systems that optimize routes, show parents and school officials where a bus is at any given time and also keep track of when and where students get on and off.
“For thousands of our students the school day begins and ends on a yellow school bus,” Deputy Superintendent David Stubblefield said as he introduced the board to the company’s offerings. “We treat it as an extension of the classroom.”
Seven vendors applied for the contract, and the field was whittled down to Zum, First Student and Durham Student Services, he said. Zum received the highest score.
Zum will replace the district’s current busing contractor, DS Bus Lines. DS officials did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Zum logs when and where students get on and off the bus
Among the top reasons for Zum’s high rating was its technology.
Zum uses an app that tracks bus locations in real time — similar to Uber. Parents and school staff can use the app to find out how far away the bus is and whether it will be on time.
Shawnee Mission’s evaluators also liked the parent in-app ratings of bus drivers, which averaged 4.9 out of 5 stars, Stubblefield said.
The company also uses RFID cards to log when and where students get on and off the bus, another way to reduce parent anxiety, he said.
“This is the modern, safe and transparent experience our community deserves,” he said.
Route optimization software also will not only save on gasoline but reduce the amount of time students spend on the bus, he added.
Driver positions advertised for $25 to $32.50/hour
Administration officials were also impressed by Zum’s claims of 98% on-time pickups and, especially, a zero shortage of school bus drivers.
Board member Jamie Borgman asked how the company managed to fully fill its driver rosters. Stubblefield said Zum has a culture of engaging with its drivers and employees, and that the pay and benefits packages have been helpful in retention.
It’s too early to know yet what pay and benefits will be for next school year’s drivers, said Kristin Babcock, the district’s communications coordinator.
“But we are very encouraged by Zum’s low-to-non-existent bus driver shortage rate. It is our understanding that pay and benefits play into their strong pool of drivers,” she said.
Officials at Zum have not immediately responded to a request for information on driver pay and benefits.
According to a recently announced hiring event taking place in Shawnee this week, the company pays wages from $25.46 an hour to $32.50 an hour, along with guaranteed hours, modern benefits and “top-of-the-line” buses.
Zum plans to hire 168 bus drivers, 99 attendants and 16 van drivers for the Shawnee Mission District, and the announcement encourages current drivers, as well as new and experienced drivers to apply. The company will pay for training and certification.
The totally air-conditioned fleet is another noticeable change. Currently, all special education buses have air conditioning, but only 20% of buses for general education do, she said.
Zum was founded by Ritu Narayan in 2015 and now serves more than 4,000 schools in 130 districts, including Kansas City Public Schools, which added it in 2019, and Omaha Public Schools.
As of Tuesday afternoon, it has a Yelp rating of 2.9 out of five stars out of 231 reviews, and 4.2 out of five stars from 245 reviews on Glass Door as a workplace.
Although it now advertises satisfied drivers and smooth operations of bus routes, there have been difficulties as it started up, some reviewers have reported problems with the app and the routing.
“It sounds awesome on paper”
Diane Meyers of Shawnee, said she has had problems with the district’s current bus company, DS Bus Lines, and at first looked forward to the change. But then she became concerned about not finding enough good reviews of the company online.
Meyers takes care of four grandchildren, two of whom ride the bus home from Shawnee Mission Northwest High School. She said the current system is so often late that they are frequently tardy, and she stopped having them ride the bus to school.
She said it will be nice if Zum can change all that.
“I’ll be interested to see what happens. It sounds awesome on paper,” she said. But she said she believes state funding cuts may play a role in how well the new system performs.
Beth Bosch pays for bus service for her second and fourth graders at Rising Star Elementary because she lives too close to the school to get it for free.
Late buses have never been a problem, she said, but she hopes the district will keep an eye on the safety and atmosphere inside the buses, where different grade levels mingle.
As for the air conditioning, “That’ll be nice,” she said.
