LAURINBURG — Scotland County students will be able to work on homework or surf through district-approved sites while riding a school bus starting this upcoming school year.
According to Transportation Director Julius Dockery, 39 more buses had the WiFi systems installed last Monday with only five more to go. Those five are new buses and will replace older buses in the school district.
Having WiFi on the buses allows students to use the Chromebooks that are provided to them by the district. From the buses that already have WiFi, statistics showed majority of students visiting the learning management system Canva to access homework.
“The kids have been looking forward to it because they’ve kept asking when are we going to get WiFi on buses,” Dockery said. “It has changed a lot with students being able to use it and access it on their buses.”
Dockery added this time of year is actually the busiest time of year for the mechanics of the transportation department, since the buses have to go through inspections, and making sure heavyduty work along with all other work gets done before school starts.
“Every year we run 75 regular buses, so its 69 regular buses and nine EC buses,” Dockery said. “And we do over a million miles logged by our buses each year.”
Many of those buses also have the new camera systems on them that will allow more views on the bus than just the single camera at the front of the bus. Dockery added the camera system can be hooked up with the WiFi allowing for those at the bus garage to watch the cameras live.
The transportation department also added there will be a class for those interested in becoming a bus driver. Dockery added they’re always looking for drivers to keep the buses going.
“We’ve been fortunate to keep all our buses running,” Dockery said. “Just from talking to other directors in other counties, there are some that have packed the buses because they can’t get enough drivers for the routes. But we’ve been fortunate to have our buses running on time for the most part and able to get our students to school and back home.”
The class is on July 15-17 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Cooperative Extension Office on Cronly Street in Laurinburg. The seating for the class if limited so it’s asked that you call Gale McNeill at 910-276-8912.
Reach Katelin Gandee at 910-506-3171 or at kgandee@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com