Franklin Community Schools parents have reported problems with the district’s new transportation application this week.
The StopFinder app, which school officials piloted at Union Elementary School during the spring semester, expanded to include students of all Franklin schools when classes began Wednesday. Some parents noted in community Facebook pages their child’s bus route was not showing up on the app and they had trouble contacting the school district’s transportation department.
Parents who have recently moved may not yet see their bus route on the app, which parents must be invited to use, and which distributes information on school bus routes based on student records. Parents might also have trouble finding their child’s bus route on the map if their student’s school records are incomplete, said Jeff Sewell, operations director for Franklin schools.
“We do have a few users experiencing problems with the app. Most frequently, it ties into enrollment information,” Sewell said. “People who have moved or are in the process of enrolling or reenrolling will face challenges for the first few weeks of school.”
Within the next couple of weeks, however, all student information should be updated and everyone in the school district should be able to access their child’s bus route and the estimated time of arrival for certain spots along the route. Parents who need to update their contact information with their school should call their school’s front office, he said.
“The app provides each family the bus stop information and schedule for students and it also allows them to see the progress of the bus on the morning and afternoon route,” Sewell said. “It has a nice feature where they can set an alert with an advanced warning when the bus will pull up to a house or bus stop. The app is secured so it keeps student information safe and pulls information from our student information database.”
The Franklin schools transportation department is often inundated with calls, so parents who need immediate information on their child’s school bus should email [email protected], he said.
“I would say within the next couple of weeks we should have our users restored,” Sewell said. “It hinges on parents helping us get their information up to date.”
