To remedy ongoing issues with school bus schedules, South Colonie is looking to change starting and ending times for district schools.
The South Colonie School District has been facing difficulties after traffic patterns in the area shifted, delaying school bus runs between the middle and elementary schools. An independent study by the Transportation Advisory Service suggested changing the hours for four of its schools. The district held meetings on Wednesday, Jan. 21, and Thursday, Jan. 22, to hear from parents about the issue.
“The district has been on the same bus schedule, as far as drop-off and pick-up times, for 24 years,” said Superintendant Jonathan Buhner. “Over the last two decades, there has been significant growth on Central Avenue, and certainly Wolf Road. Things have changed…. While our drivers do a great job and work hard, some of what we have on paper just doesn’t work anymore.”
The times students leave Veeder, Roesselville and Saddlewood elementary schools are sometimes 20 or 30 minutes later than the scheduled 3:25 p.m.
The transportation study recommended changing the times so that all elementary schools run on a 9:11 a.m. to 3:25 p.m. schedule, and both middle schools from 8 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. This would leave drivers a 40-minute window to complete routes and get to the elementary schools.
“We have to make a change to the system. We’re not honest with parents as to what time kids are getting home. We’re not honest with kids. It just doesn’t function. Until we make a change, we’re not going to be able to address that. We do have, really, a system that is not working for us,” said Assistant Superintendent Tim Backus.
The change in schedules would not happen until the beginning of the 2015-16 school year, giving a nine-month window for the district to work out a final plan.
While Buhner stated the adjustments would help both academics and the budget, parents had concerns. Overwhelmingly, South Colonie residents felt that district officials were not considering the full impact changing schedule times would have on working parents.
The largest concern was the extra $1,000 a month to send kids to the before-and after-school programs through the Colonie Youth Center (CYC). The district has been in contact with the CYC to discuss changing the program times, but parents were still worried.
“It’s great that the CYC was contacted, but it’s still going to come out of our pockets,” said one mother. “As parents, we have to absorb that cost…. This extra 20 minutes, now I have to pay another $1,000 because schools are starting later. I think when it comes down to it, it’s still going to affect the working parent maybe more than what was thought of.”
Parents were also concerned how receiving the bus pick-up times for their children only two weeks before the start of school, would effect the early registration for the CYC programs.
Nikki Caruso, executive director of the CYC, said waiving the registration fee was a possibility in this case, since schedules would be thrown off for the first year.
Caruso also said she would look into creating a second program, if staffing and space was available, to run alongside the before-school program beginning at 7 a.m. The second would begin around 8:30 a.m., so parents would not have to pay for time their children wouldn’t need since an hourly rate is not legally possible for the CYC.
Since Colonie Central High School had to remain the same for Vo-Tech, BOCES and other out-of-school programs, and the middle schools both adjusting only 15 minutes, only the elementary schools had to worry about after-school activities.
This would affect the people who are running the activities more than the students, said one father. Buhner agreed that an adjustment would have to be made, and he said he would look into the possibility of moving some program to before-school hours.
Budget-wise, the adjustments in hours would allow the school to reinstate some after-school runs, which had been discontinued after a tight budget in the 2014-15 year. As well, some private runs could also be taken back.
The final details of the scheduling changes are still in the works, which is why Buhner said he wanted to hear from parents. The last step would be submitting the changes for the Board of Education to review throughout February before the plan is finalized.
“We hope to move forward to try to maintain good services for our kids, make sure kids are home at an hour we can better predict in a safe fashion, and also think about long term efficiency,” Buhner said.
