Seattle Public Schools and Transportation - Yet Another Cluster You-Know-What

Update: a parent at a Magnolia/Queen Anne/Ballard Facebook page created this doc on bus routes. He says:

We have 42 routes over 27 schools. The missing routes are heavily clustered. Only Cascadia and Salmon Bay have more than 2 routes missing. (They are missing 6 and 4 routes respectively). Most of the missing routes are in District 2 and 4.

In essence, this means that the bell time change is attempting to service the needs of 27 schools, and really mostly Cascadia and Salmon Bay. I don't think this is obvious. Furthermore, I don't think anyone has even asked the folks on these 42 routes (or others in the 27 schools) if they would prefer to continue with whatever workarounds they've had this year or if they'd prefer a bell-time change (and implicitly drag the whole city + supporting industries + teacher/staff families) along with it.

There is also a Change.org petition.

end of update

Seattle Public Schools has never gotten transportation right. It's like watching a pinball game - look, the ball's going this way, no, that way! Buckle up kids, because it's happening again. This is classic JSCEE playbook - make big decision as a rush "we have to do this!"

Please be sure to submit your feedback on SPS website (Let’s Talk Link). May 18 is the last day for community feedback. https://www.k12insight.com/Lets-Talk/Dialogue.aspx?k=WF7G2YLT@DY8N1B7LT

I think the most important thing right now is to show you are these basics but here's a link to the entire page:

How Would a Three-Tier Schedule Work?

Each school will be assigned start and end times, just like they are now. The draft start times for each school are available on the Bell Time Changes webpage. 
What Time Would Each Tier Start?

In the current draft, we are considering these approximate start times:
Tier 1: Start 7:30 a.m.
Tier 2: Start 8:30 a.m.
Tier 3: Start 9:30 a.m. 

Your Thoughts or Questions

We expect to move forward with the plan for a three-tier system of start times. We know there will be questions and challenges in this transition.

Please use this Let’s Talk link to submit questions and any challenges we might not have considered yet. 

Timeline

The three-tier bell times will be included in the SPS Transportation Service Standards for 2022-23. This document must be approved by the Seattle School Board each year.

April 21-May 18: School and community feedback collected and considered.

April 21: School Board Operations Committee — Reviews the recommended proposal and decides whether to send it to the full School Board. Changes to the recommendation can be made before the board introduction.

May 4: School Board meeting — Introduction of the Transportation Service Standards 

Know what? This huge change is NOT at the top of the district's website. Almost like they DON'T want parents to know. PLEASE tell your PTA or school community this is happening.

There was a meeting in West Seattle this past Saturday with directors Leslie Harris, Vivian Song Maritz and Lisa Rivera Smith. Good reporting from the West Seattle Blog; the directors had some interesting things to say.

Director Leslie Harris

Harris described the bell-times issue as “on fire, to say the least,” adding that she is “beyond disappointed” in district staff “only dropping official information on Thursday.” The Operations Committee meeting “was difficult” – lots of information, lots of “preconceived notions about what we’re going to do” – “it’s about money, the fact we don’t have enough drivers, competing with Amazon and UPS and Metro and” others for drivers. But a decision must be made soon on proceeding with the district’s bus provider First Student, and going back to 3 tiers or staying with 2 is at the heart of that. She also lamented that no one in the district transportation department – whose leader recently departed – remembers how hard people fought to get secondary schools to start later because teenagers need more sleep. 

The district will meet with Metro to see how it could help but “the lack of data and lack of detail could not be more frustrating,” Harris said. She also said this shouldn’t have emerged at the eleventh hour, because there’s been a proposed line item in the budget since September regarding “going to 3 tiers to save $5 million” but it’s taken this long to discuss it.

Director Lisa Rivera Smith 

There apparently also is a parallel philosophical controversy over whether decisions like start times/buses should be a school board matter at all, Rivera Smith noted. Overall, she said, that meeting got “really crazy” and ran 2 hours over. She felt it would be “irresponsible … to just punt this.” So committee members moved it to the full board for “consideration” – which, she stressed, didn’t mean the committee approved the proposal. And, she said, there’s a chance it could change before it’s officially introduced at the May 4th board meeting, especially given that it’s only now going to families for feedback.

Director Vivian Song Maritz 

Song Maritz observed, “Who makes the decision is not so important to me .. what is important is data-oriented decision-making,” and looking for every possible solution to the bus-driver shortage.

Questions from parents:

Question from attendee: Did SPS do any surveying before proposing changing bell times? Rivera Smith said yes, there was a building-leader survey. “I want to cry when I think about a child standing on a street corner at 6:15 am waiting for a bus” which could happen with the earliest start time. She’s not against three tiers in concept but she’s concerned about student health.

Oh, they asked the PRINCIPALS. Whew! That's a relief. Also, there's Director Rivera Smith waffling again. 

An attendee wondered what will happen to out-of-school programs for a third-tier student. Answer: Nobody knows, since this information is so new. Harris added that district staff said Thursday that if your school choice no longer would work for you because of the schedule change, they would set up a way to enable you to make a change. 

 

Re: athletics, “there’s going to have to be a fair amount of negotiation” for secondary students and Seattle Parks, and that’s happening, but they have to address how that possibly conflicts with adult league rentals. 

 

Yet another question: Is there room for later child-care programs for third-tier schools? Reply: “Many layers … to be worked on.”

A solution that's too sensible for SPS:

I am sure many people have ideas, and I get I am sitting in the cheap seats. But what if the Seattle Public Schools hired drivers as full-time employees? When not driving buses, they could be tutors/lunchtime aids/administrative assistants, or any number of other jobs needed during the school day. The bus drivers could receive benefits and full time wages. Just a thought!

There are so many schools that could use that kind of help - elementary needs help for recesses and lunch, tutoring, etc.