Hawley Elementary School Principal Christopher Moretti shared a presentation from the school district's Transportation Task Force at the Board of Education's meeting on March 20.Staggered Start Times

The proposals the task force presented include staggering school start times, increasing the number of buses used for the shuttle service between Reed Intermediate School and the elementary schools, and altering morning ride lengths for Reed and the elementary schools.

The school board discussed possibly voting on the presentation's proposals at its next meeting, scheduled for April 3.

Mr Moretti explained the district began looking at sleep study research and changing school start times in the winter of 2016. Changes were implemented for the start of this school year, when the school district transitioned from a three-tier bus system to a two-tier bus system.

As noted in the presentation, with the new system buses were arriving late in the morning, student downtime was increased at the elementary schools, there were increased student behavior issues, there was an increased need for student supervision, students were arriving home later in the afternoon, buses were full, and there were increased numbers of parents picking up or dropping off their student/s at school. Reactions to the issues surrounding the new system included the district shortening Reed Intermediate School's day by five minutes, extended support staff time with students, All-Star Transportation altered usage of its fleet, and the school district reconvening its Transportation Task Force to find solutions for the 2018-19 school year.

The task force included administrators, educators, parents, and representatives of the Board of Education and All-Star Transportation, the district's main transportation service provider.

Mr Moretti said the task force had six priorities: staggering school times, having buses arrive on time, decreasing student downtime, looking at the bus shuttle system and crowding between Reed and the elementary school rides, looking at the length of rides, and researching parent pickups and dismissal practices.

Mr Moretti said as the task force looked at solving each priority, it frequently found that one solution would cause other issues. The group looked at removing the shuttle system, which buses students between Reed and the elementary schools to combine bus routes, but found it would cost $1,188,439 for the number of buses, fuel, and added drivers, according to All-Star Transportation's estimates.

The first discussion that solved multiple priority issues, Mr Moretti reported, was staggering start times for Reed and the elementary schools. Reed's school day would run from 8:55 am to 3:27 pm, and the elementary schools would run from 9:05 am to 3:37 pm. This change also restores Reed's school hours to its previous length, prior to this school year's system.

Mr Moretti explained that to minimize issues with the shuttle system, the task force looked at using an extra bus from the elementary schools' assigned fleet to help transport Reed students to the elementary schools. For the afternoon bus runs, Mr Moretti clarified, some buses are used as shuttle buses while other buses wait at the elementary school to transport all of the students.

According to the presentation, when discussing bus ride lengths, the task force looked at using express buses for some direct routes, re-examining bus routes, re-examining bus stops, increasing police traffic support, and making ride times more equitable.

"Running this model makes it more equitable between the Reed and elementary students [for ride lengths]," Mr Moretti said. "The Reed students were really having the longer ride times in the morning and in the afternoon."

A graph in the presentation shows estimated average ride length time changes for Reed and the elementary routes from this school year, with a focus on the morning routes as the proposal only affects morning ride lengths. Hawley Elementary School routes would increase by 12 minutes from 32 minutes for the elementary students and would decrease by 11 minutes down from 46 minutes for the Reed students. Sandy Hook Elementary School routes would not change for either the elementary or Reed students. Middle Gate Elementary School's rides would increase by nine minutes from 33 minutes for the elementary students and decrease by 19 minutes from 50 minutes for Reed students. Head O' Meadow Elementary School's rides would increase by eight minutes from 35 minutes for the elementary students and would decrease by 21 minutes from 52 minutes for the Reed students.

"We then ran all the buses through their routes, you know fictitiously… using this year's information with next year's proposal," Mr Moretti said, "and 46 percent of the bus runs are 25 to 35 minutes in length. Thirty-six percent of them are between 36 and 45 minutes in length, and the ones that are on the higher end… bus rides that are 46 to 50 minutes, 18 percent of the runs would have that."

Mr Moretti said the task force felt it was able to address concerns about ride length times. He added that all concerns were listened to as valid, and he believes the committee "did its due diligence."

Overall, he added, "We feel we eliminated as many concerns as we could. We feel we reduced the impact of those unsolvable issues, and that we are not going to give up on a great plan in search of a perfect plan."

A future goal, Mr Moretti shared, should be to continuously monitor ride lengths to be around or below 50 minutes.

A number of people spoke during the meeting's public participation. Transportation Task Force member and district parent Katie Burke said she appreciates the group's efforts but she does not feel the proposals are the best plan for students. She added that she questions whether the data provided by All-Star Transportation is accurate, and she said if the district increases ride times for elementary students it should be certain the ride times will not be longer than planned.

"Are we being fair to the elementary school students and setting them up for success with an extended bus time in the morning, the same way we have set our middle school and high school students up for success? I don't think so," Ms Burke said.