Board reviews transportation "bell time" study; asks administration to seek public feedback on several scenarios

Superintendent Dr. Maggie Vitale told the East Stroudsburg Area School District Board of Education on Oct. 20 that a district-conducted bell-time and routing study identified significant afternoon routing conflicts and a mismatch between morning and afternoon driver needs.

The study quantified the imbalance: the district’s current schedules require about 73 buses and drivers in the morning but about 112 in the afternoon. Vitale said the district currently has “in the nineties” drivers on staff, leaving a recurring shortfall in the afternoon. She summarized recommendations on routing, trip pairing, and seven timing scenarios designed to reduce afternoon driver needs and even out workloads.

Board members focused on three practical considerations: bus-driver staffing and route length, the district’s existing career-technical schedule (MCTI), and family/child-care impacts if start times change. Vitale said the study showed the district is broadly efficient but flagged specific long routes that are driven by direct-to-MCTI trips, out-of-district special-education transports and consolidated transfer stops. She emphasized, “We’re not making a decision tonight… nobody get worried,” and urged community input before any change.

Why it matters

The study matters because current start times create an operational strain in the afternoon that requires far more drivers than the morning. The district’s transportation targets cited in the presentation are: elementary bus capacity goals of 60–80 percent, intermediate about 75 percent, and high school about 65 percent; the study found district actuals near or above those bands (elementary about 85 percent). Large afternoon route conflicts make it difficult to assign buses to a second run and are the main reason the afternoon fleet need rises to about 112 vehicles.

Key details from the study

- AM/PM driver needs shown in the presentation: roughly 73 buses/drivers required for morning runs, 112 for afternoon runs; district staff estimated about 98 drivers on staff at the time of the meeting. - Typical current bell times cited: intermediate 7:30 a.m.–2:20 p.m.; high school 7:20 a.m.–2:30 p.m.; elementary 9:00 a.m.–3:30 p.m. - Efficiency constraints: some long routes exist because of dedicated MCTI runs and out-of-district special-education transports. - The study presented seven timing scenarios ranging from small pivots (5–15 minute shifts) to three-tiered schedules that would be more disruptive to families and activities. Example scenarios explained in the presentation: Scenario 1 (secondary 5 minutes earlier; elementary 5 minutes later); Scenario 2 (secondary 5 minutes earlier; elementary 10 minutes later); Scenario 3 (a swap: elementary at 7:30 a.m., high school at 8:35 a.m., intermediate at 8:45 a.m.). More dramatic three-tier options and swaps were shown but marked by the presenter as cautionary or off the table for immediate consideration.

Board direction and next steps

Multiple board members told administration to continue study and to solicit public feedback on a narrowed set of options rather than survey all seven. By the end of the discussion board members coalesced around asking administration to pursue further analysis and public input on selected scenarios (including the smaller pivots and a swap option) and to report back; the superintendent said any macro (major) change would require committees, outreach to families, discussions with child-care providers and coordination with MCTI and athletics and would not be implemented until a future school year if chosen.

The board gave administration informal direction to: further analyze operational impacts (including athletics and late/activity buses), prepare outreach materials, and develop a public-input process for the shortlisted scenarios. No formal vote to change bell times was taken at the Oct. 20 meeting.

Ending

District leaders said the preferred near-term approach is to consider micro-adjustments first (small minute shifts) and use a public-feedback period to test appetite for larger changes. If the board later decides to pursue a major schedule shift, administrators said they would form committees and engage families, staff and child-care providers before implementing changes in a subsequent school year.