ALBANY, N.Y. — School bus routing software developer Transfinder presented its fourth annual Ambassador of the Year award to the Schenectady (N.Y.) City School District on Wednesday.

Antonio Civitella, the president and CEO of Transfinder, announced the winner at Transfinder’s Annual Client Summit in Albany, which was attended by more than 200 school district officials from 30 states and Canada.

Civitella noted that Schenectady City Schools was Transfinder’s first client when it went into business 30 years ago, and discussed the critical role that the school district has played in making Transfinder the company it is today.

“Schenectady City Schools holds a special place in my heart as the CEO of Transfinder,” Civitella said. “It is the school system I attended from the time my family arrived in this country from Italy when I was 9 all the way through high school.

“Schenectady City Schools is what officially made Transfinder a company, because it was our first client,” he added. “I always talk about the importance of that first client, when you go from zero to one. Schenectady is that client! And they stuck with us through it all, including the times we had to work the kinks out.”

Accepting the award on behalf of Schenectady City Schools was Laurence Spring, the superintendent of the district. Spring thanked Civitella for his commitment to the city and his role in helping to revitalize it.

“Schenectady is a city that has had some difficult times, and Tony has played a very significant role in anchoring and growing his business here and reinvesting in Schenectady,” Spring said. “We’re very pleased to be recognized in this way, but truly Tony Civitella is the person we should be honoring.”

Spring highlighted the important role Transfinder technology has played in the district’s transportation department.

“Transfinder is really the bedrock of our transportation department,” Spring said. “As different folks transition in and out of the department, it’s Transfinder that provides the infrastructure to how we do things, how we get routing done, how it is that we make sure that, despite a transient population, kids still get picked up.”