New technology helps schools manage their buses, keep children safe

School buses carry precious cargo and school bus fleets costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain. So Brownsburg schools turned to Carmel-based Synovia to get some high tech help to manage their buses.  And, it's not just your daddy's old GPS system.

"We track buses," said Donna Petraits with Brownsburg Schools. "We know exactly where they are.  We know what they're doing if doors are opening of if they're stopping at railroad crossings."

Jon King is the CEO of Synovia he demoed the software in his Carmel headquarters Friday.

"Bus 8022 is on that street, near that town," King said, as he pointed to the computer screen.

He said they can track the gas mileage, idle time, break downs and the exact speed of a bus anywhere and determine if the driver stopped on time for a pickup or was speeding.

"All the way to the other end of the spectrum to know, did all the children that were supposed to be picked up at a bus stop get picked up and did the arrive at school and get off the school bus," King said.

When severe weather moves in the system is so sophisticated, they have a radar overlay over the tracking images so when they're tracking the buses they can tell the bus drivers, exactly where the severe weather is, how long they have to get the kids to safety and when they need to get the buses back into the barn.

"It adds another level of accountability for the bus drivers and really it protects them as well."