SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, FLA. (WSVN) - With the start of the school year just a week away in Miami-Dade and days away in Broward, school bus drivers are taking to the streets to get a feel for their routes for the year.
They are some of the first faces many kids see as they head into school, and now, they are getting an early start to make sure they are ready.
“I’m excited, and I’m nervous, OK? Because the kids don’t know me, I don’t know them. The traffic is rough,” said bus driver Elizabeth Gross.
Gross is one of several drivers taking the nearly 52,000 students across over 900 routes back and forth to school.
Miami-Dade County Public Schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho was on hand for the route preview as well.
“Be patient. The first day of school usually results in some delays,” Carvalho said. “Remember, we are introducing about 1,000 busses onto Miami-Dade streets.”
A new staple of this year is all of the buses are outfitted with GPS to allow real-time monitoring, something the superintendent said school district app users will one day soon have access to.
“When the bus starts moving, it would track all along the map,” said a woman demonstrating the technology.
Buses will also be equipped with WiFi connectivity.
A top priority of safety and security, the transportation team in Broward County also used Monday morning to get ready for day one.
“We’ll always be prepared for it, and I can tell you, we are proud of what we’re doing,” said bus driver Darius Bienaime.
Transportation leaders there are expecting the smoothest start up in years with a number of technological updates and other issues that have been addressed.
“These students love these drivers. They depend on these drivers with their very lives,” said Broward Executive Transportation Director Arby Creach. “We’ve got a team of dedicated routers that basically know every nook and cranny in this county, and they’ve got everything down to a science.”
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