Bell times, busing discussed at BW School Board

By LENNY C. LEPOLA

News Assis­tant Man­ag­ing Editor

After half of a school year with three-tier bus­ing under the Big Wal­nut Local School District’s belt, Dis­trict Assis­tant Super­in­ten­dent Gary Bar­ber raised the issue of 2013–14 school year bell times dur­ing Mon­day evening’s board of edu­ca­tion meeting.

When the dis­trict moved to three-tier bus­ing at the start of the cur­rent school year, three dif­fer­ent bell times were estab­lished for build­ing startup and release times. Big Wal­nut High School and Big Wal­nut Mid­dle School cur­rently start their days at 7:35 a.m. and stu­dents are released at 2:25 p.m. Big Wal­nut Inter­me­di­ate School starts at 9:10 a.m. and releases stu­dents at 4 p.m. All three dis­trict ele­men­tary build­ings start at 8:25 a.m. and stu­dents are released at 3:15 p.m.

Bar­ber said the three-tier bus­ing sched­ule and related bell times are the result of the geo­graph­i­cal chal­lenges of a 105-square-mile school dis­trict serv­ing 3,000 students.

“To go to the old model of a sin­gle bell time district-wide would require 20 new buses cost­ing $1.5 mil­lion, and another $1 mil­lion for oper­a­tions costs,” Bar­ber said. “After a few early year adjust­ments three-tier bus­ing is run­ning well, although dri­vers would like more time between rounds; but we’re mov­ing more stu­dents with fewer buses and that leaves room for growth.”

Bar­ber said there were neg­a­tives to three-tier bus­ing. Par­ents have expressed some con­cerns about the inter­me­di­ate school start and release times, and dri­vers are being pushed to make their routes on schedule.

Bar­ber asked the board mem­bers to exam­ine a mod­i­fied three-tier sys­tem, and also con­sider a two-tier bus­ing sys­tem with a 7:45 a.m. to 2:35 p.m. start and release and an 8:45 a.m. to 3:35 p.m. start and release.

“The added cost of mov­ing to a two-tier sys­tem would be two new buses at $75,000 each or $150,000, and an addi­tional $100,000 in oper­a­tion costs,” Bar­ber said. “But it would force the dis­trict to make dou­ble runs.”

Bar­ber said dou­ble runs would involve some indi­vid­ual buses doing two pick-up routes and two drop-off routes each day for a spe­cific build­ing, cre­at­ing stu­dent super­vi­sion concerns.

“The dou­ble runs could be elim­i­nated with four addi­tional buses for $300,000 and $200,000 more in oper­at­ing costs,” Bar­ber said.

Board mem­ber Pam Lil­lie said she would be con­cerned about bus dri­vers being rushed to meet tight­ened schedules.

“I like the two-tier sys­tem bet­ter,” Lil­lie said. “But I’m not cer­tain if vot­ers would like the cost.”

Dis­trict Super­in­ten­dent Steve Mazzi said even though state dol­lars have flat-lined, the dis­trict still has things to do that must be done – like bus­ing students.

“There was a time when the state reim­bursed the dis­trict for buses,” Mazzi said. “We got three buses for the price of two, but that’s gone. We know what’s best for stu­dents but we’re hand­cuffed because of dol­lars. So here we are mak­ing deci­sions on what’s best for kids, but the money isn’t in the budget.”

Mazzi said he would like to see how two-tier and three-tier bus­ing would impact the dis­trict bud­get over five years.

Board mem­bers asked for addi­tional infor­ma­tion about option costs and if there was any new infor­ma­tion about how start time impacts class­room per­for­mance in dif­fer­ent age stu­dents that would help them make a deci­sion when they revisit the issue dur­ing the March board meeting.

In other busi­ness, dis­trict Direc­tor of Aca­d­e­mic Achieve­ment Angie Pol­lack and Big Wal­nut Mid­dle School Inter­ven­tion Spe­cial­ist Erin Barr pre­sented a Race to the Top update; and how the district’s Ohio Teacher’s Eval­u­a­tion Sys­tem pilot pro­gram, part of the district’s RttT effort, is progressing.

Mazzi noted that the dis­trict had received a let­ter from United Way of Delaware County thank­ing Big Wal­nut staff for rais­ing $6,000 for United Way.

Mazzi also said board mem­ber Pam Lil­lie would be rec­og­nized for serv­ing as a board of edu­ca­tion mem­ber for 12 years and 20 years serv­ing the com­mu­nity dur­ing the March 19 Ohio School Boards Asso­ci­a­tion Spring Conference.

• Board mem­bers approved the fol­low­ing res­o­lu­tions: a Res­o­lu­tion Approv­ing the Galena Admin­is­tra­tion Build­ing Land Swap; and a Res­o­lu­tion of Sale of Board-Owned Prop­erty (Real Estate).

• Board mem­bers approved the Edu­ca­tional Ser­vices Agree­ment between The Learn­ing Spec­trum, LTD and Big Wal­nut Local School District.

• Board mem­bers approved a $3,000 pay increase for Ron McClure, Trans­porta­tion Super­vi­sor, to his cur­rent con­tract for addi­tional respon­si­bil­i­ties to super­vise cus­to­dial and main­te­nance staff, effec­tive Feb­ru­ary 16, 2013.

• Board accepted the res­ig­na­tion of Kris Flesh­man, Big Wal­nut High School cus­to­dian, effec­tive June 28, 2013, due to retirement.

• Board mem­bers approved the fol­low­ing spring ath­letic sup­ple­men­tals for the 2012–13 school

year:

Base­ball:

Chris Holly, Head Coach, step 7

Carl Weiss, Assis­tant, step 11

John Schone, Assis­tant, step 8

Steve Myers, MS Assis­tant, step 11

Joel Studlien, MS Assis­tant, step 7

Jeff Dutiel, Volunteer

Kelly Holly, Volunteer

Dan Las­sak, Volunteer

Joe Lewis, Volunteer

Char­lie Row­ley, Volunteer

Matt Wil­son, Volunteer

Soft­ball:

• Jeff Hat­field, Head Coach, step 6

• Frank Turner, Assis­tant, step 10

• Blair Nance, MS Assis­tant, step 6

• Lori Hay­hurst, MS Assis­tant, step 11

• Leah Ann Baker, Volunteer

• Jerry Hatcher, Volunteer

• Tim Rioux, Volunteer

Boys/Girls Track:

• Joe Evener, Head Coach, step 11

• Eric Myers, Head Coach, step 11

• Don Edwards, Assis­tant 3/4, step 11

• Dora Riggs, Assis­tant 1/2, step 6

• Gary Bran­don, Assis­tant 3/4, step 11

• Joe Weaver, Assis­tant, step 11

• Mike Ryder, Assis­tant 1/2, step 11

• Anthony Zarcone, MS Assis­tant 1/2, step 0

• Justin Heck, MS Assis­tant, step 11

• Kelly Robin­son, MS Assis­tant, step 11

• Mike McGann, MS Assis­tant, step 4

• Kevin Abrams, Volunteer

• Ted Stim­mel, Volunteer

Boys Ten­nis:

• Ryan Balaz, Head Coach, step 2

• Josh Pace, Assis­tant, step 0

• Kim White, MS Assis­tant, step 11

• Board mem­bers approved the fol­low­ing extended field trip: Stu­dents grades 9–12, Expe­di­tion Inside Cul­ture (EiC) Field Trip to Hig­gins Lake State Park, Hig­gins Lake, Michi­gan, May 9 – 12, 2013.

• Board mem­bers approved the fol­low­ing dona­tions: $1,000 donated to Big Wal­nut High School Chal­lenge Day, Anony­mous Donor; $1,000 donated to Big Wal­nut High School Chal­lenge Day, Anony­mous Donor.

The next reg­u­larly sched­uled Big Wal­nut Local School Dis­trict Board of Edu­ca­tion meet­ing will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Mon­day, March 11, in the Big Wal­nut High School Media Center.

Posted by Gary Henery on Feb 12 2013. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.