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disembark the bus, they scan their school
ID card creating a real time record of the
child’s location.
Not only does the School District’s system
re��ect and record this information in their
bus tracking software, but when the new
technology is complete, parents will also
be able to access their child’s location.
With the personal identi��cation veri��cation
provided by their child’s student ID card,
parents will be able to know not only
where their child’s bus is through the
WheresTheBus app, but they will have
the assurance of knowing when their child
gets on and off their bus.
Mr. Oh has already been hearing great
things from the schools that are currently
utilizing the technology. “The principal
and assistant principal at Williams
Elementary have been heavily involved.
They’re enjoying the process. And they’re
telling us that students are enjoying the
responsibility of scanning. The feedback
has been great.”
Mr. Oh wants parents to know that the
ID scanning system – and all of the
recent technology upgrades – are being
implemented for their children’s safety:
“This is another security feature to ensure
the safety of all of our students. It’s an
extra layer and a service that we want to
provide for our community.”
“With this new technology coming at the
rate that it is coming, there are going to
be some issues,” he cautioned. “There
will be some bugs that we have to work
out for the ��rst year. So if there are any
issues where parents are having technical
dif��culties with the app, or whatever the
case might be, I just ask that they let us
know and be patient.”
Mr. Oh has a fresh ally in the technology
roll-out this year, as the District has brought
in the leadership of Gary Sawyer as the
new Director of Transportation. Mr. Sawyer
began his new role with the Manatee
County School District in August of 2019
after retiring from a 37-year career with
Pasco County Schools. His career path
took him from teaching at the beginning
of his tenure, to his ultimate position as
Director of the Pasco County School
District’s transportation department.
Mr. Oh, who has been with the District
for 9 years, oversees the operations
and technology side of the department,
while Mr. Sawyer brings his extensive
experience and wealth of knowledge to
the table concerning Florida statutes and
transportation procedures.
As it happens, both Mr. Sawyer and Mr.
Oh commute to Manatee County from
their homes in Pasco County. Both are
also married with children – Mr. Sawyer
is the father of adult children and Mr. Oh
has two children with another on the way.
Asked about his transition to Manatee
County, Mr. Sawyer thoughtfully re��ects
on the past several months: “Having my
whole career in one place, as I moved
up I knew how things functioned. So
as I got promoted, I knew how things
worked. Coming to a new District, I
know the state guidelines and I know
what DOE the Florida Department of
Education wants, but it’s about learning
what Manatee wants now and how they
conduct business because every District
does it a little differently. And Mr. Oh is
obviously a wealth of knowledge for that.”
“Everybody is great to work with and
everybody works really hard,” he adds.
“The District is open to new ideas and
change. They’ve got a lot of good going
on with all of the technology they were in
the process of implementing. It’s great
stuff. We didn’t have any of that where
I came from, so it’s new to me as well.”
Mr. Sawyer supervises the day-to-day
operations of the school’s fleet and
transportation program. “In this position,
you basically oversee the transportation
of students to and from school and
extracurricular activities.
But in addition to the obvious part of
what school transportation does, there’s
the whole maintenance division – all the
school bus inspections and maintenance
of the buses, as well as the white ��eet for
the District – so it’s the maintenance of
all of those vehicles. Then we’ve got the
training and safety division because we
train all of our own bus drivers.”
With more than 300 employees currently,
the Manatee County School District’s
transportation department is also hiring.
Mr. Sawyer adds that previous training is
not required: “We do all the CDL training
and all the DOE training internally. And
it’s all paid training!”
• To contact the Manatee County
School District Transportation
Department, call (941) 782-1BUS
or visit the Transportation tab at
www.ManateeSchools.net.
Won Oh and Gary Sawyer assess the routes
/www.ManateeSchools.net
