Prince William County Schools in Virginia is moving forward with plans for a four-bell school start schedule for elementary schools, in a move that school officials say will help the school system overcome a bus driver shortage.
The change, planned for the 2023-24 school year, will result in more elementary schools starting the school day at similar times to prevent bus drivers from having to pick up for two or three different routes. The shift should also result in improved attendance and end uncertainty some students and parents have about the time their bus will arrive in the morning, school officials said.
At Wednesday night’s school board meeting, Superintendent LaTanya McDade said the current scheduling model, which features nine different start times for elementary schools across the county, “is not helping to ensure efficiencies in the way that we are running our routes.”
Several school systems across the D.C. region have reported bus driver shortages, which have led to some delays in the mornings, and in some extreme cases, buses not arriving at all.
Vernon Bock, the school system’s chief operating officer, said the county started the year with 103 bus driver vacancies and currently has 69. That, coupled with daily driver absences and some on long-term leave, has resulted in some drivers having to complete second and third routes.
“You can imagine how that compounds in making students late to school,” Bock said. “All this has contributed to a lot of uncertainty for our students and families. I’ve even had parents call me and say, ‘I’ve taken my child home from the bus stop, and they’re going to miss school today because we’ve been waiting for 30 minutes.'”
Bock said 558 of the county’s 657 buses are on the road for elementary school routes, which he described as “our heaviest lift for the day.”
Now, the county is planning to use a two-tier system, in which the first tier of elementary schools would start the school day at 8:45 a.m. and end at 3:25 p.m. The second tier would have schools start at 9:20 a.m. and end at 4 p.m.
The change, according to school board documents, would result in a five to 10 minute impact for 12 schools; a 15-20 minutes impact at 23 schools; a 30-35 minute impact at eight schools; and a 40 minute impact at two schools.
School officials said a pilot program testing the change at some elementary schools yielded positive results.
Students who receive specialized transportation, the county said, will continue to receive that transportation.
In the event of a weather delay, schools will start two hours later than their regularly scheduled start times. McDade said the school system has been unable to use the two-hour delay “because of the transportation concerns that we’ve had these past two years.”
“If we institute this, this allows us to return to the two-hour delay as opposed to having the full day of instruction lost because we are unable to get students to school during inclement weather,” McDade said.
School Board member Jennifer Wall described the change as “music to my ears.”
Board member Adele Jackson said, moving forward, the county should consider “scheduling conflicts that staff and families might have with middle school and high school sports.”
More information about the changes is available online.
