JAY – School Committee members voted 4-0 Thursday to hold a public meeting to discuss having one bus run for all students, kindergarten through 12th grade.
The move is expected to save about $9,200 this year by eliminating separate runs for elementary and middle/high school students.
The committee also voted 2-2 to reject buying a 2000 club cab pickup truck for $13,800 for maintenance. Transportation and maintenance coordinator Sue Weston uses the truck. The truck has 70,000 miles on it and has a plow. The 1990 model has been parked because it is unsuitable for the road, Superintendent Robert Wall said.
Chairman Clint Brooks and Vice Chairwoman Mary Redmond Luce opposed the purchase, while members Joel Pike and Tim Toothaker approved it. Because it was a tie, the motion failed.
Committee members set the public meeting on the bus run for 6 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 12, at the Jay Middle School cafeteria.
Wall was asked to bring an analysis of energy costs and other pertinent information to the meeting. He estimated the school system would save about $9,200 the first year, if the board approves the proposal in November and the run starts Nov. 28. That plan includes having a late bus.
The school system would need to buy another bus, which it would have to anyway, Wall said.
Three buses were destroyed in a bus garage fire in June, and only two were replaced.
Wall said administrators are realizing they should have replaced the third bus. The insurance company paid the last two lease payments on one of the destroyed buses, and that leaves the $14,000 voters raised for this year’s lease payment that may be used toward a new lease and purchase of a bus.
Wall said bus monitors would not ride along on the single runs, but that the buses would have cameras.
“This also allows us to have visual and verbal record of what’s taken place,” Wall said.
Neighboring SAD 36 saved $32,000 when it went to a single bus run last year and is expected to save more than $40,000 this year. That district does have monitors ride on each bus.
Wall said administrators would need to make sure overcrowding doesn’t occur on the buses. He also said some logistics would need to be worked out.
One mother asked the board to consider the self-esteem of students when working through the process. Her son has disabilities, she said, and he has gained 100 percent self-esteem riding with the older students rather than the younger students since moving to Jay.
Teacher and resident Donna Labbe said she favored the early time for elementary students to go to school. Normally, students in kindergarten through fourth grade have class from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. The consolidated run would make their day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Breakfast is usually served 15 minutes prior to class starting.
“I find that a.m. time is really pertinent time for kids,” Labbe said.
In the morning, kids are really “with us,” she said. It’s the best learning time, she added.
Having one time for all schools would be good for professional development, she said.
Kelly Fortier, a parent and educator, said she hoped that the committee didn’t consider expanding the walking route for elementary school students if the district went with a single-bus run.
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