Customizing School Field Trip Solutions For You

Wood County Schools, West Virginia
School District

Wood County Schools in West Virginia was looking for a field trip management system that was more user friendly. bushive took them from an inconsistent, error-riddled system to one that is customized and streamlined.

Regina Graham, the district’s transportation director, confirmed that busHive has proven to be the user-friendly, easy-to-use program that she had wanted. It saves transportation staff time and helps them cut down on errors. She has also been impressed with the level of customization that busHive has been able to do for the district, as well as their same-day response time any time she’s had an issue or problem.

“I just love busHive. They’ve just done anything we’ve asked,” she declared.

Prior to busHive, athletic trips were handled through a different online system—which was not so easy to use—and all other field trips were managed on paper. Forms would not get to where they needed to be and sometimes the transportation department would miss them entirely.

Then there was the added work of typing up the field trip information into a trip form on the computer. Mistakes can and did happen, Graham said.

“We were looking for something that was more user-friendly,” she explained.

busHive conducted a demo to show how its program worked and what it could do. This in-depth overview, along with all the available customization of different aspects of the field trip management program, made such an impression that the district started using busHive in July 2018.

Trips are now arranged in the busHive program by date and time, which is crucial to the way Wood County Schools assigns trips to its school bus drivers.

Due to the driver shortage plaguing much of the nation, Wood County Schools limits field trip requests to make sure that regular routes are covered. busHive’s online system prevents trips from being approved by school administration and then declined when they get to transportation because drivers aren’t available. busHive was set up to ensure that all trip requests come to the transportation department first, where it is verified that buses and drivers are available. Dates can be “closed” to show that they are all booked. It has given transportation a better handle on scheduling and Graham a better handle on operations.

Communication and accessibility have also improved. Teachers are responsible for entering information correctly so transportation staff cannot be blamed for mistakes that they did not make. Teachers can also follow along with the approval process and even cancel trips online.

Graham is well aware of the fact that most people don’t like change but, as far as the district’s school bus drivers were concerned, the transition to the new system was smooth. busHive was able to customize a form that the drivers were already used to.

With the busHive program, the district is also able to handle driver payroll for field trips and athletic trips electronically. This saves payroll personnel the time and effort having to hand-key that information in. Another advantage busHive’s technology-based system has over an analog one is cloud-based access. Graham related that trips that were canceled late were now not such a burden because she could look up from home the driver who was supposed to make that trip, then pass on the information.

busHive’s features, along with the customization that the company has carried out, has resulted in a strong partnership with Wood County Schools and Graham in particular.

“They’re just fantastic,” she said.