Transportation Service Standards for 2011-12
Transportation Information (Service Standards for 2011-12).
Tuesday Open Thread
The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested. It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio. (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Comments
One thing that's interesting. You should go to the website and look up Schools (it should be the new website). Look at those start times. There are at least 3 elementaries that start 10-15 earlier (and end at the same time as the others). Those kids are, in a year, getting a lot more time.
I noted this years back for the high schools for the amount of lunch time they took (I think it is fairly even now).
-altmama
Actual bell times are set by the principals (or possibly the Superintendent?) within the windows set by drop off and pick up times. So those can't be decided until after the Board votes on the Transportation Service Standards on 2/16.
- altmama
Option #2 - Third tier schools start at 9:45 (9:25 drop-off) and buses depart at 3:55.
Those times assume the earlier routes are able to run on time...
Another anonymous
Proposed arrival and departure times have already been communicated to Principals and the public.
Uh, no. This is the first time we've seen the list of schools and times. They weren't available at the public meetings.
Parent
As is, the parent who does the drop off gets to work at 930AM this year. We are lucky to have some flexibility to make this work, but not everyone does. And I can't imagine pushing the time back yet another 25 minutes.
Seriously, are there other urban school districts with elementaries that don't start until 945AM?
And where's the report from the savings of the current plan?
I am so tired of the unpredictably brought on by the promise of predicitably.
Was option #2 added just to make #1 more palatable?
Ugh
It seems crazy to me that those few HS yellow buses (and the sports lobby) drive so much of what goes on in transportation and academics.
Parent of 3, the thing is, they did push this decision back several weeks and have held three community meetings. Charlie said there were 6 parents at the first one. I was at the 2nd and there were maybe 10-12. Was the one at Sealth last night any better attended? I don't know if people aren't paying attention, or if they don't care. I will say that I think Tom Bishop and Tracy Libros are trying to cover as many kids as possible through intermediate boundaries with community stops and when that isn't possible by probably amending the NSAP transition plan to get those kids a seat somewhere. And this will save $4,000,000 by getting 80 buses off the road. I don't see other departments at SPS doing this much work to save money.
The vote was pushed back because the proposal was still being developed.
That said, I agree that Mr. Bishop is working to minimize the impact on families and provide options to prevent students from losing transportation. I just don't see how a 9:45 start time is even an option.
Ugh.
I say if the district goes ahead with this, then we REQUIRE net costs of transportation to be reduced to an agreed upon figure. Anything that goes over that comes directly out of the superintendent and all the executive managers salaries. Put them each on furlough for the number of days required to keep transportation costs at the Promised Level.
See This five year summary.
What is also unclear is what the 3 to 4 million in savings means. Does it mean down from 11.3M which is the current budget or from 13.2M which was last year's actual.
Let's say 11.3M which is this year's budgeted amount. And let's be kind and say we only will get 3M in savings. So that gives Transportation a ceiling of $8.3M. Any dime over that, no matter what, including gas price increases or anything, will come directly from furloughing executive staff.
Also, I do not buy into the $4million savings as that was the same figure we "saved" by the last round of changes. And I do not believe this report has seen the light of day, despite repeated requests by the board and parents!
Ideally, this would have been proposed last year and implemented this year, but part of what makes this save money is that the state funding formula has changed and I'm not sure when the details of that were known. I actually thought they should have done something like this with the NSAP, but apparently the funding formula then rewarded the old structure. Also, one of the major things parents said to cut in the budget survey was transportation. When buses are cut, bell times (and diversity and choice) take the hit. Everything is connected.
I agree that there should have been a transportation report and am annoyed that the Board let staff get out of that obligation. I did hear Michael DeBell, after last night's work session, say that he would want to see an evaluation of transportation changes next year, though he was talking to another Board member and not to staff. That needs to get formalized and enforced this time.
SCPTSA Board Member
I went to the SPS website: News and Calender. Nada. I stumbled upon the NEW home page and yes, there is information. But I did just happen upon this information.
The only way I know about these changes is because of this web site. I have received no information from either one of my schools.
Does anybody really think that parents know that the 9:45-3:35 bell time is on the table...again?
Does anybody think that people really understand that their child may loose transportation?
I don't, I think the communications has been dismal on this and accounts for the lack of meeting participation.
Every principal should have been sent information directing them to get this information out to families.
While I applaud the efforts by the SCPTSA, I do not think their efforts translated into widespread communication.
In anycase, parents will get informed. And it won't be pretty!
If high schools and middle schools do not shift to an earlier time, the start/end times of the third tier schools would be around 9:45/3:45 (option #2).
Since this is still a proposal, and not yet gone for Board vote, it won't be on school websites.
Maureen's link is the only place I've seen the school-by-school info (thank you).
Another anonymous
Elementary age kids? They go late so you are stuck with the bill for both before and after school care. And they have to work late into the day, which I'm sure is hard on the youngest ones who usually rise quite early and aren't all that far removed from the need for a daily nap.
MS/HS kids? They get out early so you have to figure out how to keep them out of trouble for 3-4 hours every afternoon. Many middle schools do provide a free afterschool program, but kids can easily ditch it in my experience. And they are working against their biological clock getting up so early.
Some of the middle schools have amazing after school programming. However, it is not available to every child, every day (first come, first served sign-up).
The programs start about a month into school, and take time off before the holiday break, and don't go all the way until June. AND, your kids are likely to get into at least one of the classes, but no guarantees they'll have something everyday. At HIMS the after school program does not operate on Fridays. If ever there was a day to get into trouble ...