March 9, 2023
As you are aware, throughout the state and the nation there has been a shortage of bus drivers over the last few years. In the EWSD, this has led to inconsistent transportation for many of our learners, which is unacceptable. To help correct this, and improve how our students learn and how our systems function, we will be updating the start and end times at each school starting this fall.
Knowing that this change will affect most families, we wanted to give you as much advanced notice as possible so that you can plan accordingly.
In our current system, our transportation requires 23 drivers, but with the updated start and end times, we can reduce that to only 17 drivers. The improvement will see our younger learners start five to 20 minutes earlier, while our older learners 25-to-40 minutes later.
Additional advantages:
Bus drop-off and pick-up at schools will be much closer to bell times, as route times and riding durations will be improved for the majority of riders
Less time spent on the bus will help reduce discipline issues
This opens up the possibility to have an ‘early’ bus for most EWSD middle school students and a ‘late’ bus for most EWSD fourth and fifth graders (no Westford service available)
Westford high school students will have significantly improved service, moving from congregated stops to being picked up along with the K-8 students
Help with current traffic issues on main roads and also at local schools
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that middle and high schools start at 8:30 a.m. or later to give students the opportunity to get the amount of sleep they need
To put it into perspective, a number of area high schools currently have later start times, including:
Mount Mansfield 8:15 a.m.
South Burlington 8:40 a.m.
Champlain Valley 8:45 a.m.
Burlington 9 a.m.
Please note that small tweaks may still need to be made and we will notify all families and staff when the changes are final.
Sincerely,
Beth Cobb
EWSD Superintendent