Long-awaited updates on the state of bus tracking in the Cambridge Public Schools district have come after months of pleas from parents, some saying there have been problems for years, with special education news last week following a general education advancement in March.
A $47 million transportation contract with Eastern Bus – the district’s current provider of general education transportation – was passed by School Committee members March 18 upon the recommendation of interim superintendent David Murphy, who said the company was making a “good faith effort” to work with the district on necessary improvements to tracking and communications.
Eastern Bus was the sole bidder, as it has been and has been for years, district officials said. The amount of students, combined with irregular city traffic patterns and a controlled-choice policy of school selection, creates a situation that most bus companies are not able to manage even if they could muster a fleet of 35 vehicles. Controlled choice lets students come to a school from all over Cambridge, so a bus route is unlikely to go to just one neighborhood.
While caregivers have expressed their discontent with tracking malfunctions and chronic bus delays, Murphy remained hopeful that upcoming technology advancements would be successful.
The contract passed 5-2, with the holdouts being members Richard Harding and Elizabeth Hudson; the two also voted against approving two contracts totaling nearly $33 million with NRT Bus in June, due to a lack of tracking capabilities on its vehicles.
NRT, owned by Beacon Mobility, operates a fleet of roughly 80 vehicles in the district every day and is responsible for transporting students who have out-of-district placements, special academic needs or fall under the Mckinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act. While their contract was not under review at the March 18 meeting, Murphy took the opportunity to share his frustrations with the vendor, who did not show up to the meeting despite an invitation. “I would not say I would consider myself a satisfied customer,” he said, in reference to the vendor’s lack of prompt communication with families and delays in rolling out tracking capabilities on its vehicles.
Monetary repercussions, Murphy said, are the next step in ensuring the contract is fulfilled on NRT’s end.
John Summers, a Cambridge parent of two, filed a complaint in March 2024 against Cambridge Public Schools with the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights saying the district was discriminating against children with disabilities, citing a lack of tracking devices on NRT vehicles. Several months later member Harding brought a resolution before the committee calling on NRT to provide real-time tracking services to caregivers of children with out-of-district placements, including Summers.
An update came at the April 10 meeting of the Special Education and Student Supports Sub-Committee. Staff from the Office of Special Education and CPS Transportation boasted a high turnout at district trainings for NRT drivers and a tracking pilot app. The program, NRT Beacon Connect Family App, was piloted by 34 families in the fall and has seen positive feedback, said Damon Smith, chief operating officer of CPS Transportation.
The efforts are not enough, said Summers, who was a part of the testing. “I find it pretty much useless for the same reasons that I filed a complaint in the first place,” he said during public comment, pointing to the fact that the app provides only a radius location rather than real-time tracking as laid out in the School Committee resolution.
“We’re not there yet, but we’re getting closer to what I think it needs to be,” Smith said in response to the concerns.
NRT has also been more willing to come to the table after what Smith described as a “watershed moment” in December – a lapse in communication that led to yelling. While there has been no withholding funds from NRT, the monthly check-in meetings that resulted have helped keep improvements on track, Smith said. In an email to Cambridge Day, the district clarified that the software will be rolled before the end of this school year.
As far as improved tracking capabilities on the big yellow Eastern buses, they are on their way, as hinted at by Murphy in March. A $48,000 contract came before the committee Tuesday to fund a new tracking system to be implemented this spring by Education Logistics, the company responsible for what parents and officials have called the current subpar tracking on general education buses. What we have now “is like a flip phone, and we’re expecting to move into the iPhone,” said Smith of the new Athena program from Education Logistics, which integrates with Google Maps to provide more accurate tracking. “We’re very excited about it,” Smith said.
While things looked to be shaping up, Hudson urged the team to get ahead of issues that will inevitably come up: “We say we are thrilled we’re doing it now, but I want to know what is next year’s version of that. The question in the back of the audience’s mind is, well, why weren’t we doing this before?”
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.