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Bryan ISD hearing proposes small bell-time shifts to give buses a 60-minute window
Summary
District officials presented a transportation analysis recommending modest changes to bell schedules — elementary schools start 5 minutes earlier, intermediate schools shorten by 5 minutes, and middle schools start 10 minutes later — intended to provide at least 60 minutes between campus bell times to improve routing efficiency and reduce student wait times.
Bryan Independent School District officials on Tuesday presented a proposed, district-wide adjustment to school start and end times intended to improve bus routing and reduce students’ wait times.
Pat Corbett, interim executive director of operations, said the district contracted with a transportation consultant, Transpar, to analyze route efficiency and recommended at least 60 minutes between elementary and secondary bell times so buses can complete runs and return promptly. “The recommendation was to have at least 60 minutes of time between the campuses,” Corbett said, describing route constraints that leave inadequate time to complete multiple stops under the current schedule.
Under the draft schedules shown to trustees, elementary bell times would shift about five minutes earlier, intermediate schools would shorten the instructional day by five minutes, and middle schools would start 10 minutes later and end five minutes later. Corbett said those changes balance instructional minutes across campus levels and would allow buses to avoid multiple, inefficient turnarounds.
Dr. Barbara Ybarra, who helped manage stakeholder outreach, told trustees the adjustments were designed to protect student instructional minutes and to keep school doors opening at the same time so families dropping off students would not be inconvenienced. She said administrators and parent leadership teams generally described the changes as “a minor change” and “not a big impact for most families” because arrival-door times remain unchanged.
District staff emphasized that the proposals preserve the state-required instructional minutes (the district tracks an annual requirement measured in minutes) and would also reduce idle time for students waiting for buses after school. Corbett said the analysis identified a handful of loading inefficiencies at some campuses as additional opportunities for improvement. “Some of our campuses are not as efficient at loading for various reasons,” he said, and the transportation department will work with campus leadership to address those issues.
The board received the item as information and asked for input; administration said it will return with any revised options and additional stakeholder feedback before final action. No policy changes or votes on schedule adoption occurred at Tuesday’s meeting.
