and California Teachers Association. The governor ob- served that the bill was a “one-size fits all” solution that is best left to individual school districts to decide on and implement, not Sacramento. The California School Boards Association also opposed
the bill, declaring that working parents did not have the “privilege” to simply delay the start of their day. But the bill is back in the Golden Gate State. This past
May, Sen. Anthony Portantino reintroduced the legislation that would ban all K-12 schools, including charter schools, from starting class earlier than 8:30 a.m. Rural school dis- tricts and private schools would be excluded, though. Other regions have also objected. In December 2017, after an outcry from parents and community groups, Boston Public Schools set aside plans for staggering bell times. The school board had sought to reduce transpor- tation costs. It reasoned that implementing later start times would provide educational advantages for the older students. But these changes would also cause some elementary schools to start at 7:15 a.m. Using the hashtag #No7to1, those against the change used social media to argue that no students, even young ones, should be asked to start school that early. The district backed down, with then-Superintendent Tommy Chang saying that shifting school times would cause a more significant disruption to family schedules than the school board had intended.
Trying to Save Money Adolescent biology aside, changing bell times can bring
positive results to transportation. On one hand, longer hours mean more money for drivers. On the other, school districts might be able to save money by reducing fleet sizes.
A case in point is Rockford Public Schools in Illinois.
Michael Slife, the executive director of transportation and a former state director of student transportation with the Illinois Board of Education, said Rockford started the process of switching from a two-tier to a three-tier schedule last summer. “My superintendent understood that making chang- es to address our driver shortage was necessary. At the end of the 2018-2019 school year, we had 203 drivers, about 40 below what we needed,” he said. “To be fully staffed in our new system, we’re projecting the need for 205 drivers, with a savings of around $600,000 a year in transportation costs. We’ve been able to reduce the size of our fleet by selling 40 of our oldest buses. One me- chanic retired, and we aren’t filling that position.” Slife said the process that began last summer was
long and frustrating. It required many meetings with building administrators, athletic departments and the
superintendent’s cabinet. Then the school board cast its approval vote in January, and the new bell times will be implemented next month. “We had many meetings to explain how changing
the bell times would help buses arrive on time for trips and athletics,” Slife added. “Some teachers were upset, especially our middle school teachers, because we had to move those times by 15 minutes. But our original proposal had more than a half an hour difference. We tweaked all of the schools so we didn’t have to move the middle school quite as much.” The district has five route coordinators overseeing the
logistics of transporting 18,000 students via the school bus. Slife said the goal is to reduce the number of routes from 200 to 165. He added that he also scheduled three dry-run days before school, so drivers can get used to the new times and traffic patterns. “We’re hoping that making more money keeps drivers
here,” Slife explained. “There will be a few routes that will only have one or two runs. But for the most part, our drivers are going from working five or six hours a day to seven or eight hours, making it more like a full-time job. My advice for other districts that want to change bell times, is to start early and be persistent, even though this process can be frustrating.”
Changing for the Wrong Reasons? The Tonawanda Union Free School District in Ken-
more, New York, has changed walking distances and bell times in the past. “The plan was to revisit the issue in a couple years and discuss the results,” said Trans- portation Supervisor Jim Nestico. “What started the conversation this time around was the teacher’s union.” Nestico relayed that the union leadership wanted all teachers to work from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. So, a task force consisting of representatives from the teacher’s union, support staff union and administrators was formed. But the group never invited transportation staff to the table until half-way through the process. “They were thinking about doing this for the wrong
reasons,” Nestico commented. “[One board member] brought in all the studies about high school kids needing more sleep. But on the other side are parents who need older kids home to take care of elementary-age siblings, and there are high school kids with after-school jobs.” Additionally, Nestico said the athletic department
decided that 3:15 p.m. was the latest that teams could be dismissed from school for their sports trips. The next conflict arose with teachers who are also coaches. To ad- dress these concerns, Nestico requested 40 more buses at a cost of about $5 million. “I mentioned the national driver shortage and asked,
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