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School committee weighs 5‑minute schedule shift to ease elementary bus delays
Summary
District staff proposed starting middle and high schools five minutes earlier and elementary schools five minutes later to give buses an extra 10 minutes for routes; the committee took the proposal under advisement to solicit community feedback.
District staff told the Walpole School Committee on March 13 that shifting school start and end times by five minutes for different school levels would increase afternoon routing flexibility and reduce unsupervised student wait time caused by bus delays.
Mr. Fisher, a district staff member who presented the proposal, told the committee that recent changes to middle-school locations have increased afternoon delays for the four elementary schools and that the current schedule does not provide sufficient time for buses to complete routes. He said additional supervision costs for waiting students have totaled more than $13,000 so far this year and are expected to reach about $20,000 by year end, and that adding buses would cost approximately $85,000 per bus. "These changes will provide 10 additional minutes for the buses to arrive on time and to improve the overall consistency of our afternoon routes," Fisher said when introducing the plan.
Under the leadership team's recommendation, the high school and middle school would start five minutes earlier and the elementary schools would start five minutes later; the net effect is an additional ten minutes for buses to complete afternoon routes. Committee members asked whether the change would meaningfully reduce late arrival windows for families that need after‑school activities and whether the district would be locked into a schedule for three years; staff said the change is expected to alleviate many but not all delays and that the district would revisit options if the change does not produce the intended improvements.
Committee member Missus Rizzo moved to take the proposed school start and end times for the 2025–26 school year under advisement to provide community feedback; Miss Rogers seconded the motion. The committee approved the motion unanimously, 6–0–0.
No change to the academic calendar was adopted at the March 13 meeting; the committee will collect community input and revisit the proposal at a subsequent meeting before taking a final vote.
