WJCC Board to Vote on Bus Route Changes

By Amber Lester Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Last month, Williamsburg-James City County Schools’ transportation staff was sent back to the drawing board to come up with a bus schedule plan the school board could approve.

Tonight, the WJCC board will vote on the second draft of proposed changes to the division’s three-tier bus route. The first draft was dismissed by several parents, teachers and school board members for pushing the school day for the third bus tier back to nearly 5 p.m.

The bus tiers have to change to accommodate new bus routes drafted after the redistricting of elementary and middle schools. The new routes have to include two new schools — J. Blaine Blayton Elementary and Lois Hornsby Middle — located on Jolly Pond Road.

The new proposal includes five plans that were vetted by a committee including members of the administration, school principals at every level, Student Services, athletics, Operations staff and the Williamsburg James City Education Association. The committee is recommending Option A for approval because it features the least amount of routes and maintains the current bell and tier schedules.

Three of the five options retain the current bell schedule, with the earliest classes beginning at 7:20 a.m. for high schools and the latest classes ending at 3:50 p.m. for six elementary schools. Some of the drawbacks to these options include late buses and an increase of about 19-22 bus routes over the previous year.

The fourth option, deemed Option D, would start the earliest classes 10 minutes earlier, then five minutes earlier for two middle schools and three elementary schools and would not change for the remaining elementary schools. This plan would negatively affect Tier 1 students who don’t ride the bus, and late buses could remain a problem.

The fifth option would reduce the elementary school day by 15 minutes, with the latest class still ending at 3:50 p.m. While the report doesn’t list any pros, the cons list includes a later start at elementary schools, which would affect parents’ schedules, along with a loss of instructional time.

In all the scenarios, the 6 p.m. sports bus will have to be eliminated from schools, but the division will still provide 4:30 and 4:45 p.m. activity buses. Also, the schools would have to adopt a new procedure for releasing students in the morning and loading them in the afternoon.

Students will be released from the bus no later than 10 minutes before class starts. In the afternoon, students should be released to board waiting buses at the dismissal bell; late buses will park at the back of the line.

When evaluating the plans, transportation staff also reviewed the possibility of returning to the previous two-tier bus system, allowing high schools to start later and elementary schools to start earlier. They found that reverting would cost $232,500 to $375,000 for additional bus drivers and $900,000 for additional buses. Starting high school later would also have affected high school athletes who would then have to miss class to travel to away games.

The board will meet at 7 p.m. in the board room in Building F at the County Complex on Mounts Bay Road. See more information about the bus tier proposals here.