CUMBERLAND — Children who ride the bus might as well smile when they step aboard Tuesday, the first day of school.

Most of them will be on candid camera.

Over the summer, maintenance crews installed digital video cameras on scores of Allegany County school buses, and by summer 2010, the county’s entire fleet will be equipped, school officials said.

“We’re phasing them in,” said Jay Walbert, transportation director, adding that over the last couple of years technology has become affordable enough to put cameras on every bus.

The school system bought about $250,000 worth of surveillance cameras in June, using funds left in the transportation budget because of lower diesel fuel costs, Randy Bittinger, director of finance, said .

“In May of ‘08, diesel fuel was like $4.95,” Bittinger said. “There wasn’t an analyst in the world who was saying the price was going to collapse, but we know that in September it did.

“We viewed this extreme decrease in fuel prices from May ‘08 to May ‘09 as an opportunity to make a one-time expenditure on these bus cameras,” Bittinger said. “Sadly enough it’s I guess an issue whose time has come.”

More and more, school systems across the country are equipping their buses with surveillance cameras as a way of monitoring student behavior and settling disputes.

“The driver’s main responsibility is to focus on the highway and the safety of the kids,” Walbert said. “These new cameras allow us to show freeze-frame pictures of behaviors, if need be. You can stop action and see something being thrown, for example. That will allow us to show it to parents if there is a question.”

A decade ago, Allegany County school officials bought 15 VHS cameras and have rotated them among the fleet, Walbert said. Today, those cameras are obsolete, Walbert said.

Most of the buses now have three digital cameras — one overlooking the driver’s seat, the others spread along the ceiling to the back of the bus. At least one of the cameras has a microphone; all cameras have infrared sensors to film in the dark.

Buses with lifts for wheelchairs have a fourth camera at the lift gate, Walbert said.

“It’s a way to encourage better behavior,” said Walbert, who believes cameras have already made a difference. He expects the new digital cameras to have an even bigger effect.

Contact Kristin Harty at kharty@times-news.com.