New Schedule Will Facilitate On-Time Arrival at Schools
June 16, 2020
Beginning with the new school year, students, teachers and parents will be adjusting to a new routine. To ensure that all students arrive to school on time every day, the school system has adopted new start times. Elementary students will start school at 7:40, high school students at 8:20 and middle school students at 9:00.
The staggered start times will allow bus drivers to drive three routes instead of two, and the 40 minute gap between start times will ensure that students arrive at school on time.
“Getting our students to school on time has been a challenge for several years. We have analyzed the situation and researched the practices of our neighboring districts, and we feel it is imperative to make a change at this time,” said Superintendent Trent North.
“We recognize that we have asked a lot of our parents over the past few months in response to COVID-19, and we will continue to monitor and make adjustments for the health and safety of our students; however, we must move forward with these transportation changes,” Mr. North continued. “The transportation model of the past caused too many of our student to arrive late to school every day and was not the safest model. I appreciate the patience of our parents, students and teachers as we implement the new school start times.”
With the increase in student enrollment in Douglas County and the chronic shortage of bus drivers across the nation, drivers at many schools were required to drive a “double load,” meaning they drove two loads of students to the same school or home from the same school in the afternoon. Second and even third loads resulted in many students missing instruction at the start of the school day on a regular basis. It also meant that students stayed at school late into the afternoon as they waited for their bus to return to school to pick up the second load. Students in middle and high school have been most affected by late buses.
All large districts in the metro Atlanta area follow a schedule similar to the one that will be implemented in Douglas County, and all metro Atlanta districts use consolidated bus stops.
During the 2015-2016 school year, a committee studied the challenges of bus transportation in Douglas County and made the recommendation to stagger the school start times. However, school leadership chose not to implement the recommended changes at that time.
In January of 2020, a committee of parents and school system employees revisited the transportation challenges and began meeting to discuss options for improving on-time performance. The committee was led by Assistant Superintendent of Operations Kwame Carr and Assistant Superintendent of Student Services Pam Nail. Garry Puetz, a student transportation director for 23 years in Gwinnett, DeKalb, and Forsyth Counties, served as facilitator for the meetings and presented information outlining transportation goals, challenges, current performance data and the performance of the Douglas County School System compared to surrounding counties.
With input from the committee, Mr. Puetz outlined options that would solve the problem of on-time performance: staggered school start times and consolidated bus stops. The committee voted to implement staggered start times and consolidated stops for all levels.
The new start times will mean new dismissal times for every level. Elementary will start at 7:40 and end at 2:25. High school will start at 8:20 and end at 3:25, and middle school hours will be 9:00 until 4:10.
The Douglas County School System is the 17th largest school district in Georgia with 26,600 students and 3,200 full-time employees. Approximately 15,000 students ride the bus to and from school every day. Douglas County School System buses cover around 12,000 miles daily.