Tabernacle Elementary School students will be pleased to hear they will be able to stay in bed for an extra 15 minutes each morning after the Board of Education’s most recent resolution was passed to change the start times for both schools in the district.
The elementary school will now begin at 8:45 a.m. and close at 3:15 p.m., while the middle school day will start 15 minutes earlier at 7:45 a.m. and end at 2:15 p.m.
“Just like the high school’s recent time changes, ours were implemented to capture the lost instructional time,” Superintendent George Rafferty said. “We’re looking to improve efficiency and enhance our children’s education.”
This idea has been in the works for multiple years as the district has been closely monitoring bus pickup and drop-off times.
The district transportation supervisor Rob Hogan has been at the core of this proposal.
“Nine of our 14 routes from the middle school are longer than 30 minutes, so it’s not possible for our drivers with our buses to get the children to school on time, and it’s not possible for them to get back to the elementary school to pick them up on time,” Hogan said at the previous board meeting.
Times needed to be changed at both schools to allow safe time intervals between the middle and elementary school bus routes.
This bus system of 15 drivers transports 379 students daily to and from OMS and 390 students for TES.
The district’s furthest bus route is 29.5 miles roundtrip, and it is one of the routes serviced four times a day, twice for OMS and twice for TES.
The busing computer program the district uses puts the optimal time for a bus completing that trip at 39 minutes, beyond the old half-hour difference in middle and elementary school start times.
This program also doesn’t factor in specific variables such as traffic, weather and children who are a little sluggish in the morning and take a bit longer than expected to get to the bus stop.
“When you add inclement weather, half-day schedules as well as early dismissals to the equation, it is not possible for us to maintain timely schedules given our present bus routes,” Rafferty said.
A secondary driving force behind the loss instructional time was the safety, given the time intervals between bus routes.
“Drivers are very, very conscientious about getting the children to school safely and on time,” Hogan said. “There was a driver upset because she was late due to the dirt road she was driving on being covered with ice and she only had 30 minutes.”
Despite the mixed responses to the change, the administration and the board of education assured parents they always aims to ensure the most educationally beneficial and safe learning environment for all students.
“Whenever the school district identifies areas for improvement that will benefit students as well as improve teaching and learning, the district will always take action,” Rafferty said.
