Bus Tiers, Not Times, Will Change in WJCC Schools

By Amber Lester Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The bells will ring at the same times for the three bus tiers in Williamsburg-James City County schools next year.

The School Board unanimously approved Option A out of a five-option proposal presented by the division’s transportation staff at their Tuesday meeting. The bus tiers – but not the times - are changing in response to the redistricting of elementary and middle schools. The schools were redistricted in anticipation of the opening of J. Blaine Blayton Elementary School and Lois Hornsby Middle School in the fall.

The chosen option retains the current bell schedule for the start and end of each day and keeps most of the previous tier schedule, subbing Hornsby Middle School for James Blair Middle’s spot in Tier 2 and adding Blayton Elementary to Tier 3. The 92-route option also added the fewest amount of new routes; it demands 19 more buses next year compared to the past school year. The plan does not include the Academy for Life and Learning because a start time has not been established and enrollment has not ended.

The five options were proposed and vetted by a committee that included members of central administration, principals from all levels, Student Services staff, athletic staff, Operations staff and members of the Williamsburg James City Education Association. The options were drafted after the school board rejected an initial proposal in June that would have pushed some release times back to nearly 5 p.m.

Director of Transportation Earl Tyler said the plan wasn’t perfect. Late buses will still be a problem under the new option, he said. Also, the 6 p.m. sports bus will be eliminated from all schools, per a suggestion from a high school athletic director who sat on the committee. The division will still offer activity buses at 4:30 and 4:45 p.m. each day.

In the proposal for Option A, the committee noted principals will adopt a new procedure for releasing students in the morning and loading students in the afternoon. Students will be released from the bus no later than 10 minutes before class starts. At the end of the day, buses will park as they arrive and students will be released to board the buses when the dismissal bell rings. Any late buses will take their place at the back of the line.

The board briefly considered a suggestion from a parent to add Matoaka Elementary School to the Tier 2 bus schedule. She said the neighborhood of Powhatan Secondary had already been split between schools in the recent redistricting, which sent half of the neighborhood to D.J. Montague Elementary and the other half to Matoaka Elementary. If Matoaka were added to Tier 2, the neighborhood children would at least come home at the same time, she said.

Board member Elise Emanuel made a motion to approve Option A, while granting Tyler the latitude to investigate whether Matoaka could change tiers. Fellow member Denise Koch seconded the motion, but the board members reconsidered when Acting Superintendent Scott Burckbuchler expressed reservations about the wording of the motion. He said he’d prefer the board direct staff to move Matoaka, rather than leave the decision up to Tyler.

At that point, member Ruth Larson pointed out the rest of the neighborhoods affected were not present to speak in favor of or against the idea. Member Joe Fuentes agreed, saying it was a good idea, but had not been advertised to the public. The motion ultimately failed.

The board acknowledged that the transportation plan wasn’t ideal, and several members said they’d like to eventually have a more in-depth discussion about their options in the future. Koch and Larson volunteered to join the existing committee that reviewed the transportation plans.

In the fall, the committee plans to meet to assess the new schedule and explore options for the future. After a preliminary review of the five plans, transportation staff had been asked to explore returning to a two-tier bus system. That change would allow the high schools to start 10 minutes later and elementary schools to start 10 minutes earlier. Staff found that at this time, reverting to a two-tier system would cost approximately $232,500-$375,000 for additional bus drivers and $900,000 for additional buses.

The committee also discussed the probability of switching the schedules of the elementary and high schools. That change would have a significant impact on high school athletes, who would have to miss some classes to travel to away games. Those issues will be discussed in the fall meeting, according to transportation staff.