Startup tests tracking system for buses and students

A local startup hopes to use a pilot program at a Middletown elementary school to test a system that tracks school buses and the students they carry.
MAP Information Technology Corp. was founded six months ago by Chris Collins, who left his job as senior director of engineering at GTECH Corp. to start the company. MAP IT’s other employees are Tom Cannon, chief technology officer and another former GTECH employee, and Deborah Rapp, Collins’ sister, who serves as the firm’s marketing officer.
The company is developing a technology platform that enables school systems and bus companies to track the progress of school buses and identify the students on each bus as they board and exit the buses.
The system operates through a secure Web portal that enables approved personnel to watch the movement of school buses on a map in “real time,” using global positioning-system devices installed in the buses, and to identify the students on each bus via radio-frequency identification labels attached to students’ book bags.
School departments and bus companies, which in some cities and towns manage the transit of hundreds of buses and thousands of students each day, could use the MAP IT system to prevent children from getting on the wrong bus and to notify parents or schools when buses are stuck in traffic, said Collins, who lives in Lincoln.
Currently, most school-bus companies communicate with drivers via two-way radios, and few buses are equipped with GPS devices that enable system managers to track the exact location of a bus, he said.
“It’s one thing to know where the bus is. It’s another thing to know who’s on the bus, who’s missing, who got on the wrong bus,” Collins said. “[With the MAP IT system] you know exactly what street [a bus] is on, and you see it moving around. You click on it, and it tells you what tags are on there and kind of tells you even how fast the bus is going and how far away it is, and if there are kids that are not supposed to be on that bus, [as well as] any kids that are supposed to be on the bus that didn’t get on.”
MAP IT is funding the pilot test of its system using two school buses at Aquidneck Elementary School in Middletown, after that town’s School Department agreed to host the pilot project several months ago. The company is looking for office space to establish its corporate headquarters, and is targeting the end of the school year to start marketing its product widely, Collins said.
Several weeks ago, MAP IT reached out to all the school superintendents in Rhode Island and invited them to view the system in action in Middletown when it is fully operational, he said.
Collins said he decided to publicly announce the formation of MAP IT and the pilot run in Middletown after the Dec. 13 snowstorm that gridlocked parts of Providence for hours and stranded about 60 students on city school buses late into the night following a communication breakdown.
“I think [MAP IT] really would have helped the situation in Providence – and it is a bit uncanny that it did occur,” Collins said. “It’s not something that I wanted to see happen. Obviously, I feel for the families and the kids. But to be honest with you, we were moving along at a very, very good pace and this has obviously kind of accelerated things.”
But the Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union responded to news about MAP IT’s test run in Middletown with a press release noting that the program’s use of RFID tags on schoolchildren raises privacy and safety concerns.
Rapp, MAP IT’s spokeswoman, said the system is not designed or intended to invade the privacy of students.
The RFID tags that would be carried in student’s book bags contain only a unique identification number that would be visible on the system while the student is in transit, Collins said. That number could be cross-referenced against the database, by authorized school personnel, to determine the student’s name and other personal information kept by the school, if a parent needed to be contacted, he said.
“We’re not trying to keep tabs on kids and where they are at any particular time,” Collins said. “We’re trying to cater to the school and the bus company, who are concerned from the moment the kids get on the bus to the moment they get home – it’s really the responsibility of the school system.”
Middletown Schools Supt. Rosemarie K. Kraeger did not return a telephone call seeking comment last week.
But Rapp said after the ACLU’s complaints were aired that the School Department is proceeding with the pilot test, having already vetted it and discussed any concerns about safety or privacy at School Committee meetings.
Parents whose children will be part of the pilot project were notified in December, in a letter sent to homes that explained the program, Rapp said. No parents objected to the program, she said, adding that any children whose parents have concerns will not be required to wear an RFID tag. ·