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09/27/2016 12:00 AMGuilford students have been back in school for a little more than a month and some changes made this year are starting to settle in, particularly changes to the district bus routes.
For the 2016/2017 school year, the district opted to change some of the bus routes as a result of recommendations received from an outside consultant, according to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Paul Freeman. He said these bus changes have helped to maximize efficiency while maintaining student safety.
“We were very sensitive to feedback that we received over the last couple of years that buses were stopping very frequently and that buses never appeared to be running full, so in many instances instead of pulling into every cul-de-sac off of a main artery, we are now stopping at intersections of cul-de-sacs and main arteries and asking students to walk out and meet the bus,” he said. “This is a first step approach, but we are working to run a more efficient busing system and recognize efficiencies—safe efficiencies—wherever possible.”
The Board of Education (BOE) and school staff have been discussing bus runs for more than two years, first in the context of possibly changing school start times, and later to look at increasing efficiency after a difficult budget season this past year. In changing the bus runs this school year, Freeman said the goal was to maintain safety, improve the placement of stops based on student distribution, and relocate door-to-door stops for new kindergarten students.
“Safety remained our primary concern,” he said. “We wanted to make sure any changes made maintained the level of safety we expect here in town, but we also looked to be more nimble in our bus routing. Bus routes that may have been established for years in a neighborhood have changed as a result of meeting the door-to-door expectations for kindergarteners.”
While Freeman said these changes were made conservatively, the transportation office received more than 150 requests to review the changed stops. Freeman said the district has reviewed those requests and revised the changes in certain circumstances.
“We want to be really thoughtful about where we are asking our students to meet the buses and about the safety and the perception of safety on the part of the parents,” he said. “So while we made significant changes early on in the process and we were initially projecting being able to take two buses off the road this year, we have given back on some of those.”
Freeman said the district has held its ground on many of the changes, but is still working to maintain an open conversation with parents.
“If parents are concerned there is a safety concern, we want to be really thoughtful and collaborative on those,” he said. “I do understand that the bus stopping at the end of the cul-de-sac may feel more secure to some families, but stopping at the intersection of the main artery is more efficient and with the bus with the flashing lights on and with the traffic stop, those intersections are perfectly safe for students to board.”
Even after putting two buses back on the road to address parental concerns, Freeman said the district expects to see some savings this year.
The savings “wouldn’t be as significant, but we could still see a savings in fuel over the course of the year again because some of the runs are shorter and even though we have a full fleet of buses, we are not sending them out as often,” he said.
Freeman said from here on out, bus stops will change annually as the district adjusts for the distribution of the student population. He said this is an ongoing conversation.
“We are going to continue to work on this as we get better with the software that we are using, as our transportation coordinator becomes more experienced, and we expect to continue to strive for more efficiencies,” he said.
For more information on bus routes and stops, visit guilfordschools.org.