Elementary Bus Tiers To Rotate Startng in 2016-17 School Year

Last Thursday night, the School Committee voted 5-0 to begin rotating the elementary bus tiers (3rd & 4th tiers) starting in the 2016-2017 school year.  As you may know, the district currently has four tiers of bus routes:

Tier 1-CHS, Tier 2- GMS, Tier 3 JFK & Hansen and Tier 4- Luce & St. John.

This dynamic has been in place for many years and the administration and school committee have heard from many who wanted to see a rotation of the elementary tiers so that the same schools are not always getting home the latest.

The School Committee has been deliberating on this for a while and they heard from a number of concerned parents who brought up many salient points on this matter at the meeting last Thursday. The School Committee did not vote yet on which schools would be on the specific tiers or how long the rotation would last.  They will gather more information before they take a vote on those aspects of the plan.

The Committee had previously voted an earlier proposal to move to a later start time at the secondary level and  shift from four bus tiers to three.  This would allow for the high school and middle school to travel together on the same tier and would have the high school start 40 minutes later in the morning.  This extra time for teenagers is deemed critical in allowing them to work more effectively during the school day.

The later start time necessitates more buses (and staffing) and has a significant impact on the FY16 operating budget. If the plan to start the high school later is able to be funded through the budget process the schedule would look like this:

Tier 1

GMS- 7:50-2:10
CHS-  8:00-2:24

Tier 2

Elementary Schools- 8:35-2:50

Tier 3

Elementary Schools- 9:05-3:20

We will have more information on the proposed later start times as the budget process moves forward.  If the switch to three tiers comes to fruition, the 2nd and 3rd tiers would be the ones that would rotate starting in 2016-17.  It is important to note that the rotation of the elementary tiers will happen regardless of any changes to the start times at the secondary level.