School committee approves small start-time shift to reduce bus overlap, effective Nov. 3

The Westford School Committee voted Oct. 21 to change several school start times to shorten the window during which buses arrive and depart, a move the superintendent and principals said is intended to reduce bus congestion at some schools.

Superintendent Dr. Chu presented recommended changes that would set K–2 or grades 3–5 (as described in district materials) start times at 8:55 a.m. with a 3:00 p.m. dismissal, and adjust certain other elementary schools to a 9:05 a.m. start and 3:10 p.m. dismissal to tighten the window between schools. "That's still our recommendation," Chu said. The district proposed implementing the change on Nov. 3 to allow short notice communications to families.

Nut graf: Committee members supported a modest shift rather than a larger reconfiguration of routes or separate elementary bus schedules. They asked for a one-week follow-up of route data after implementation and directed staff to republish updated route times for families.

School committee members moved and seconded a motion "to approve the change in start times as proposed by Dr. Chu." The motion passed by majority voice vote with no roll-call tally announced on the record. After the motion passed, the superintendent said principals will begin communicating changes and staff will issue a robocall and updated route documents.

Committee members also discussed related steps: engineering work to widen a driveway behind a building to help traffic flow, short-term route adjustments when a combined route is necessary, and instructing the bus contractor to explore route splits where feasible. One member requested that the committee receive comparative route data at the Nov. 17 meeting so the committee can review an apples-to-apples comparison of route performance after the change.

Ending: The committee approved the modest time shift and asked staff to roll out communications broadly and report back with short-term data to evaluate whether the change reduces bus clustering at problem schools.