The fleet of vehicles at the Butler School District may soon carry GPS devices so that administrators can monitor how they’re being used.

During Monday’s school board meeting, consultants from the Nutrition Group’s property management division listed recommendations for managing the district vehicles.

The district doesn’t own its school buses, but it still maintains a fleet of 29 vehicles including dump trucks and vans for transporting special needs students. Three of the 29 are soon to be decommissioned as the district tries to downsize.

One suggestion from the management group is to install GPS tracking devices in the remaining 26 vehicles.

Such a move would cost about $7,000 a year, or about $24 per month per vehicle, but the group’s team reported that other districts had obtained insurance discounts for the devices that covered the cost.

Superintendent Brian White seemed interested in the system, and acting Business Director Nick Morelli indicated he would examine the district’s specific costs.

“With GPS in our vehicles, we could get much more detailed tracking about what they’re being used for, when they’re being utilized,” White said. “We can have a snapshot of it all with some documentation.”

Besides location, such GPS systems monitor “speed, seat belt usage and engine idles” and prevent “time theft,” according to a board memo on the topic.

Employing these GPS tracking devices in a public school system appears to sidestep hesitancies private consumers have about the machines.

According to Tim Reges Jr., a local car insurance agent, only about 50 percent of new customers want any kind of GPS tracker installed in their car in exchange for a discount. The reason why many aren’t interested, he said, is simple.

“Privacy is normally their concern,” Reges said. “They don’t like thinking that State Farm knows where they are.”

State Farm, he noted, has scaled back the capabilities of its GPS devices to soften those concerns.

The same kind of tracking school district administrators think might keep staff from misusing vehicles is sold as a feature to some insurance buyers. Reges noted that insurance agents sometimes pitch the devices to parents as a means to track their children’s every move.

“I think it’s a good idea as a taxpayer,” Reges said. “I wouldn’t want my employees on company time driving all around either.”