fields. Te board’s long lead time for implementation was designed to give staff nearly two years to resolve issues surrounding early morning safety for elementary children, day care needs and athletic scheduling concerns. “Right now, we’re divided into three subgroups to examine issues. One is safety, dealing with concerns about young kids getting to bus stops early and what we can do to assist the elementary community to get comfortable going to the bus stop earlier. Te second is school-sponsored day care, which will have staffing issues because little kids will be dismissed earlier and be in day care longer,” Burr said. “Te third is athletics. Do we have enough fields? We’re working intensely with the City of St. Paul to better utilize fields.” Burr, however, acknowledged that he’s relieved by the decision


to move forward. “It’s been such a long discussion that I’m looking forward to getting it done,” he said. “It’s been going on in Minne- sota for at least 20 years. We were discussing different bell times in 1997 when I was with the Wayzata district, and the Edina district changed theirs the year before.” From a transportation standpoint, Burr said, the shift is not terribly difficult as long as the district has enough drivers on hand. “If you have enough labor, things generally run well,” he noted. Te St. Paul district already has and will continue to send communications to parents and students that outline the new


2019-2020 start times, yet Burr said he still expects a number of parents and students to be caught by surprise. Like Burr, Pace predicted his department would sort out routes, scheduling and other logistics. “We have embedded so many different programs in the day that


you can’t just change one…without all being impacted in some ways,” Pace said. “We have to make sure all those things aren’t overlooked, but we’ll sort all those things out.” And, like Burr, Pace emphasized the importance of a full complement of drivers when the era of new bell times arrives. “We struggle every day, trying to get kids to school. We have 575 buses on the road and no substitutes. I’ll average 60 to 70 drivers out a day,” he said. “We really need to look at things to reduce the need for drivers instead of increasing it.” While best-practices often dictate that receiving initial buy-in


from staff, parents and students first is the best course of action, Lawrence advised that school districts should first consider involv- ing transportation early in the process. “If you’re using a three- four or modified five-tier system, you’ve got efficiencies built in,” he said. “You may find you can’t afford $1 million or $2 million for more buses to make it happen. If you have city buses, you have more flexibility, but with our suburb there’s no way to say, ‘Catch the bus that goes to the high school.’ It doesn’t go to the high school.” 


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