Ohio County Board of Education OKs $24,750 Study Using AI To Assess Bus Routes

photo by: Joselyn King
Ohio County Board of Education member Molly Aderholt, left, and board President David Croft discuss issues before Monday night's board meeting.
Ohio County Schools is contracting with a logistics firm that will use artificial intelligence to determine the most efficient use of bus routes in the school district.
Board of education members Monday night unanimously agreed to partner with the HopSkipDrive company of Los Angeles to assess bus routes in Ohio County, and the firm will be paid $24,750.
Four companies submitted proposals for the work, but what set HopSkipDrive apart from the others is their use of AI to examine the routes, explained board members Molly Aderholt and Andy Garber. They also will not charge extra to run multiple models to find different results.
Aderholt and Garber are among those on a newly formed school start times committee charged with finding a way to start the school day an hour later at Wheeling Park High School.
Other companies submitting bids were Edulog at $25,000 for just one model; the Center For Effective School Opportunities (CESO), $19,800; and Prismatic, $38,325.
Aderholt said the committee worked together to put together information on each of the companies, and most notably found that HopSkipDrive was the only one that used AI technology and would run an unlimited number of models without any additional costs.
HopSkipDrive boasts that it has worked with more than 600 school districts, most notably in Colorado and Georgia, she said. The company in the past has specialized in assisting school districts facing driver shortages and wanting to consolidate routes.
Ohio County Schools’ contract with the HopSkipDrive would be for 12 months.
“The thing I was impressed with the most was that HopSkipDrive offered the most intriguing option. They just have AI do it,” Garber said. “They say here’s the statistics. They feed it into the computer and AI spits out what it thinks will be viable.
“We may then say that’s not what we wanted. And they can say, OK let’s do it again.”
Garber also liked that the company would stay with Ohio County Schools for a year to work through any problems that arose with the new routes.
David Crumm, director of operations for Ohio County Schools, said he had checked HopSkipJump’s references, and had thus far heard back from one school district in Littleton, Colorado, who had positive things to say about them. He is presently waiting to hear back from other references.
Aderholt said she also liked the HopSkipDrive proposal the best “because it offers us the most flexibility.”
In other matters, the board accepted the requests for retirements of WPHS chorus and general music teacher Joyce Jingle, who has been employed 45 years. Also retiring is WPHS language arts teacher Jacqueline Shriner, who has worked for the school district 24 years. Both retirements become effective June 30.
The board will next meet at 6 p.m. on Jan. 27 at the board office, 2203 National Road, Wheeling.