Fairport board hears detailed rollout plan for consolidation and school start-time changes

The Fairport Central School District on Monday heard a series of presentations laying out logistics for a planned consolidation and a change in school start times for 2026–27, including preliminary bus routing, student pickup windows, and child-care arrangements.

Transportation director John Kidd told the board the district’s preliminary routing shows 90% of elementary morning pickups will occur between 7:05 and 7:25 a.m., while 90% of secondary pickups will fall between 7:58 and 8:25 a.m. He said the district’s average elementary bus load for 2026–27 is projected at about 35 students per bus (up from about 28 this year) and that average ride times will remain near 37 minutes for elementary runs and about 39 minutes for secondary runs.

“We basically just looked at some numbers…90% of our AM pickups for elementary school age students would be 7:05 to 7:25,” Kidd said, summarizing the routing window the department is using to finalize schedules.

Kidd and principals described operational responses to earlier arrival and later dismissal patterns. To address situations where no caregiver is home at elementary dismissal, the district will designate Minerva DeLand as a supervised drop-off “safe-haven” primarily for K–2 students; drivers may use the site for older elementary students when they judge a home drop-off to be unsafe.

District leaders said aligning all four elementary schools on the same tier will let principals coordinate specials and staff assignments more efficiently. A principal explained the district will continue the current 15-minute entry window—buildings will open at 7:30 a.m., with the official student day starting at about 7:45—so families should still expect a short arrival window despite the schedule shift.

To manage limited after-school space in the afternoons, district staff announced a temporary pause to elementary clubs for the first 10 weeks of the school year while busing and room usage stabilize. Middle-school leaders said students expressed interest in before-school clubs and the district plans to pilot centralized pickup locations and a small number of buses for before-school activities to allow students to participate without conflicting with sports schedules.

Wraparound care for younger students will be provided by the YMCA at all four elementary sites. YMCA and district staff said morning programming requires minimum enrollments to run (about 10 enrollments for a site), and families may need final bus schedules to decide if they need morning care; the district expects to publish bus routes in advance to help families make those choices.

District officials emphasized the rollout is an iterative process. “There’s no blueprint for a consolidation and a time change at the same time. So this is a work in progress,” Superintendent Provenzano said, urging families to consult weekly communications and the district website for updates.

Next steps: the transportation team will finalize routing and publish bus schedules to families, the YMCA will continue enrollment outreach, and principals will communicate building-specific adjustments to clubs, meetings and other traditions as administrators monitor early implementation and adjust as needed.