Spencerport School Board approves
three-tier transportation system for 03-04
Plan revised for middle schoolers

The Spencerport School Board recently approved a revised transportation plan for the 2003-04 school year.

The district currently uses a two-tier system, transporting high school and middle school students in one run, and elementary students in the second run. The new three-tier system will have high school students on the earliest bus run, middle school students on the second run and elementary students on the third run.

The change in the district's transportation system was directly related to the planned relocation of sixth grade students to the middle school in September 2003. With a two-tier system, that change would have added over 400 sixth grade students to the secondary school bus run. Eleven additional buses and drivers would have been required to transport grades 6-12. The cost of the additional buses for a two-tier plan was projected to be $180,000 per year for five years, and the labor costs for the additional drivers was projected at $170,000 annually. No additional buses or drivers are necessary in the three-tier plan recommended by Superintendent of Schools, Phillip W. Langton.

The new high school and middle school bus loops, which have been constructed as part of the district building project, were designed for a three-tier transportation system. If the district had continued with a two-tier system, traffic congestion would be a major safety concern. One of the goals of the district's capital project was to decrease traffic congestion, which a three-tier transportation plan will do, district officials explained in a press release.

With the new three-tier system, school starting and ending times will change. The exact times are still being finalized. The high school is expected to start about five minutes earlier than currently, though the earliest student pick-up time will not change. The middle school is expected to start about 8:15 a.m., which is a half-hour later than currently. Elementary school student drop-off is estimated at approximately 8:55 a.m. The school end times will change accordingly, with high school expected to end at 2:20 p.m.; middle school at 3 p.m.; and elementary school at 3:30 p.m. The projected schedules are in keeping with most of the schools in the county. Parents will be notified of the precise school start and end times for each school later in the spring, district representatives said.