JAY – School Committee members Thursday unanimously rejected putting students in grades kindergarten through 12 on the same bus run.
Superintendent Robert Wall proposed that the school system test the one run starting Nov. 28 through the remainder of the school year.
Currently, there is a bus run for students in grades five through 12 and a second run about an hour later for kindergarten through grade four.
The plan Wall proposed would have reduced the number of miles traveled daily from 583 to 321 miles to bring students back and forth to school.
Wall said the district would save fuel, ease overcrowding on the buses and help with professional development under the plan.
Wall proposed that cameras be installed on seven buses at a one-time cost of $14,000 rather than paying $24,800 for adults to monitor each run for the remainder of the year or $35,000 for a full year.
Several parents, grandparents and even a bus driver asked the committee Thursday not to consolidate the bus runs.
Elementary school teacher Donna Labbe said she supported one bus run for several reasons, including students learning better in the morning and cost savings.
Parent Autumn Therrien said she was against the proposal at first, but after talking to Livermore Elementary School principal and a kindergarten teacher there, she was OK with it if there were people on board monitoring.
SAD 36 Superintendent Terry Despres was asked to attend the meeting to explain how the single run works in Livermore and Livermore Falls.
Each district has a unique experience because of the way they’re set up, Despres said.
SAD 36 pays its monitors but doesn’t have monitors on every run and doesn’t have students from all grades on each run. Despres also said that revamping of bus drivers’ schedules and other staff members schedules, doing away with a special education bus and putting those students on regular bus runs and busing Head Start students to school helped the district save thousands of dollars in transportation costs and in other budget areas.
Despres also said there was assigned seating, and the high school students mentored the younger children.
Jay board Vice Chairman Mary Redmond-Luce said she rode some of the Jay buses, and they were full. She couldn’t imagine adding more students, she said.
Wall disagreed and said most buses were not running at full capacity. He also said another bus would arrive in mid-November.
Chairman Clint Brooks said the concern he heard from people is that there wouldn’t be enough money saved to justify going to a one-run system. He also noted the cost of monitors wouldn’t make the proposal viable.
The first year, the district would save about $5,000 after buying the cameras.
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