Letter to the Editor: Triple Tripping

A revised transportation schedule is included in the budget up for vote on June 15.  The exact same schedule would be implemented under a contingency budget.   

Given the budget defeat in May, the Board needed to look for savings in every area they could and the Katonah-Lewisboro community expressed a strong preference for cuts outside of the classroom.  This schedule represents a savings of $232,000 in the 2010-2011 budget year.  That is a significant chunk of the more than $1.7 million the Board reduced from the first, failed budget. 

Most of the savings comes through the elimination of 6 bus drivers.  We will also use ten fewer buses which takes into account the $1.2 million bus purchase proposition that was defeated in May.  We expect to realize additional savings in subsequent years through reduced insurance, maintenance costs and fuel for the 10 decommissioned buses.   

It is important to understand that this schedule is very different from the triple tripping utilized ten years ago.  At the May 25 Board Of Education meeting, I provided a comprehensive summary on the new bus schedules.  This presentation allayed many fears and corrected much of the misinformation that has been circulating about school hours and bus schedules. The net result is better than everyone thinks.  

At the Middle School, most buses have been arriving 10-15 minutes early under the current schedule and the students stay in the cafeteria until they are allowed to their lockers. The new schedule would eliminate that time.  Plus, with fewer stops per bus, the routes will be shorter and faster.  As a result, morning pick up times will be shifted only a few minutes, if at all.  The new High School bus schedule will actually be better than the one we have now.  The High School day will start 30 minutes later and those students will be able to get more sleep, which has proven academic benefits.   

Elementary Schools will end later, but drop-off times will be within a few minutes of what they are now because so many of the Elementary School buses get to school late for pick-up (after 3:25) already.  In other words, as a practical matter, most Elementary School buses aren't pulling away from school until nearly 3:40.  We did look at having Elementary School start earliest, but many parents told us this created a significant hardship since their older children who returned home first often looked after younger siblings after school.  It also represented a substantial change from the traditional schedule, requiring early morning routines for elementary families that typically did not begin until middle school.  Moreover, it would have morning Kindergarten students home from school by 10:30 or so.  While it may sound counterintuitive, the modified bus schedule will result in the use of less fuel and produce less exhaust.  This is due to the fact that 10 large school buses will be removed from the fleet.  At the May 25 Board meeting, I explained how bus idling uses fuel during mandatory equipment checks, warm-ups in cold weather and waiting at busy intersections.  The reduction in the number of buses used will reduce overall fleet idling, thereby reducing fuel consumption.  

The revised schedule is as follows:  
 
Middle school:              7:30 a.m. start, 2:07 p.m. dismissal.

High School:                  8:15 a.m. start, 2:57 p.m. dismissal.

Elementary school:    9:15 a.m., 3:40 p.m. dismissal.

Jim Minihan, Director of Transportation, Katonah-Lewisboro School District