Union County School Board Installs Radios on School Busses

to

Improve Safety

August 23, 2005

MAYNARDVILLE, TN-- Better communication is now in place for school bus drivers in Union County.

“We felt our school system needed a better way to keep students and drivers safe, so radios were installed in every school bus. The radios allow drivers to communicate with each other and with the central office,” said Director of Schools Charles Thomas. “Mr. Wayne Goforth, Elementary and Media Coordinator who is also in charge of Safe and Drug Free Schools presented The Bus Radio Project to the school board and I two years ago. The board liked the idea and I immediately said yes. With today’s world full of crime and terrorists who knows what may happen. So, here is a solution to increase bus safety for our students.” says Mr. Thomas.

“We would not have this radio system were it not for three of our local politicians,” says Mr. Goforth, “I had this project on the drawing board over two years ago and if it had not been for School Board Member Don Morgan, Tennessee State Senator Mike Williams, and Tennessee Representative William Baird, we would not have secured permission to use the Fox Hunter Road Fire Tower to install our radio repeater antenna. It took almost a year for the Forest Service, who governs the tower, finally said yes.

If there's an accident, drivers can call for help and emergency response times can be reduced.

Administrators have radios of their own, as do principals and resource officers in all of the schools.

"We've always had bus problems, and I think as long as we have a school system and run busses we're going to have some issues that need to be solved," said Wayne Goforth, "And this is one major help in solving those issues that come up."

Students have been in class for almost three weeks in Union County. Already, the radios have been put to good use.

"The first day of school, we had one bus that broke down," said Goforth. "So it was just a simple matter of the bus driver getting on the radio. They called another bus to pick up the children and no class time was lost."

The radios were also used recently when a fight broke out on one of the busses.

“I am delighted to have this system which enables me to communicate with the bus driver instantaneously. We are able to resolve issues on the spot without waiting until the buses come back off their routes or even later the next day.  I can track students by two-way radio in the event a parent needs information about their child’s location,” says Jimmy Carter, Transportation Coordinator.