Starting this week, the Brockport Central School District will operate four regular bus runs each school day. The early run, which transports middle and high school students to school, will be split into separate middle school and high school runs beginning on the first day of school, September 5.

Middle school students will start and end their day five minutes earlier. Those buses should be out of the way – either headed out to start an elementary run or back in the bus parking lot – before the high school buses begin to arrive on campus.

Superintendent James Fallon said the split runs should alleviate a great deal of congestion on the campus between 7 to 7:45 a.m. and again during afternoon dismissal period, just as the splitting of the elementary bus run did two years ago.

In order to accommodate the new split early run, elementary school start and end times will be five to ten minutes later.

In a letter to parents, Transportation Director Joseph LaMarca alerted parents to the fact that high school and middle school pick-up times may be earlier; and that elementary pick-up times may be later than in the past.

LaMarca also stressed the safety factor in his letter, stating that the heavy traffic during start and end times on the campus road hampers the access of emergency equipment to the buildings. Fewer buses at each school building will also make for a safer loading and unloading situation, according to the district.

When Brockport split the elementary bus run two years ago, it had to hire additional drivers and purchase more buses. This time no new personnel or vehicles were needed to accommodate the change, according to Fallon.

Although there will be more buses on the streets and roads, Fallon said the overall congestion on the campus and the streets surrounding it should be improved. If it doesn’t work, he added, the district will have to go back to the old way.