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New School Hours For Next Year; Informational Meeting Scheduled
April 22, 2009
The Escambia County School District is considering changing school start and dismissal times again, and once again some North Escambia schools will follow a schedule different than the rest of the county. More information about the times will be available Thursday evening when the Escambia County Council of Parent-Teacher Association holds an informational meeting in Pensacola.
Superintendent Malcolm Thomas and district staff from the operations and transportation departments will be at the meeting to explain the changes and take questions from the public. The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Room 160 of the J.E. Hall Center at 30 E. Texar Drive in Pensacola.
At the elementary level, Bratt and Molino Park will begin the school day at 7:45 and dismiss at 2:00.
At the middle school level, Ernest Ward will begin the school day at 9:05 and dismiss at 3:45. The earliest students can be dropped off at school will be 8:55. This represents a start and dismissal time 35 minutes later than the current year.
At the high school level, Northview High School will begin at 8:45 and dismiss at 3:20, a big change from this year’s 7:40 start and 2:45 dismissal.
North Escambia school times are different because of the long transport distances in the rural area and a two-tier system where middle and high school students will ride the bus together.
The North Escambia elementary schools will be following the same 7:45 a.m. to 2:00 schedule as the rest of the county’s elementary schools.
Middle schools in the rest of Escambia County will have a 9:20 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. day, a change from their current 9:30 to 4:30 day.
Other high schools in Escambia County will be is session from 8:30 to 3:05, instead of this year’s 8:30 to 3:35 day.
The school times were changed this year, most drastically outside of North Escambia, to save money. By taking over two dozen buses off the road, the school district saved an estimated $1.2 million this year.
The new start and dismissal times recommended by a task force must now be approved by the school board before becoming final.
NorthEscambia.com graphic.
Comments
17 Responses to “New School Hours For Next Year; Informational Meeting Scheduled”
My great grandpa use to say…”a little understanding goes a long way” and someone once said~ a little ‘knowledge’ is dangerous! Did someone actually say~ “I say lets move the penny tax over to education, and put the parks back in the hands of the communities as it once was.”? I don’t know about the south part of Escambia county, but I’ve been around for nearly 60 years and I don’t EVER remember the ‘communities’ having ‘parks’ up this way before the county had Parks and Recreation to help build them. From my understanding, the schools are funded from property taxes, while the road department, parks and recreation, the sherriff’s dept.,etc are funded from local taxes, including gas tax,…totally different system…each is budgeted separately and you cannot take from one source to fund another. In my opinion, when some of you voted to cut property taxes in our state, it took away from the budgets of schools and others who work for the school board…wasn’t on my vote, but some folks thought they were doing the right thing, but ended up ‘cutting off their nose to spite their face’! Times are hard, and may get harder, so, we just have to tighten our belts, learn to make do or do without and pray for the leadership of our nation and on down to state and county levels. We are all in it together and it’s up to us to pull together to make things better! Sometimes we just have to wait out the ’storms’ and hope for a light in the end of the tunnel and pray it’s not a ‘train’!
About the comment on the county workers having to come up from the south camp to fix the ditch on Bratt Road. I was told~THEY were the group who works on holding ponds, all of those were flooded, so they had nothing to do. Their supervisor sent them up here to fix a ditch the contractors had done years ago that had blown a gulley beside the paved road. They didn’t fix it the way they had been told to, it came another rain and it washed away, so THEIR supervisor told the one up here, they were not to fix it, tho’ they could have, that the ones who didn’t do it right needed to come back and correct it…that’s why they were up here. The reason the guys from the north camp were not doing it was because there were whole roads washed away in other areas of the north end of the county where people could not get out from their homes to go to work or school. They were doing THEIR job! There are a lot less workers up here for the area they cover and less equipment than at the south camp. The grading is done on a monthly schedule unless there is an emergency situation. Along with the usual territory, a while back, they were added Molino and Barrineau Park Area which had been neglected for a while before they inherited it. Sooo, there has been lots of catching up to do. So, bear with them and they will get to your problem as soon as they can. That’s the way it works! I agree, way to go, atta boy, to Mr. Lonnie and the crew!
Just for the record, I grew up in this end of the county, rode buses to school… matter of fact, we caught the bus early, were dropped off at Davis School until the other buses came to drop off the little ones and then we caught one of those to go on to EWHS. Yes the rides were long, hot and dusty when it was warm weather and never warm in the winter, but that was when we were able to chat with our friends and neighbors… something that seems to be lacking in the system these days~ social development. We chatted, but we kept it quiet…In those days, the bus drivers had respect from the students…after all, he knew their parents on first name basis and they knew Momma and Daddy wouldn’t put up with misbehaving! As for the times, there will probably NEVER be a solution which will please everyone. As for the bus drivers, if they can’t handle their job, then they probably need to find work elsewhere. You gotta love kids as well as driving to do this job! Hats off to those who love their job and take care of our kids! The children, as aggravating as some may be, are our greatest assets. How they are treated as children will greatly effect their attitudes about everything in life. They are not little adults, they are children who need to be loved and understood. And as for the roads, we’ve come a long way baby!!! I never thought I’d live to see as many roads paved up this way as we now have. Maybe one day when the economy gets better, the other roads will be taken care of as well. Until then, just remember, no one is perfect, only one walked on water! As for the one seen dozing on Pineville road, maybe he was waiting on a truck to haul a load of dirt…I wasn’t there, but even if that wasn’t the case, and he was goofing off, NEVER judge the whole team by one lousy player. From what I’ve seen and heard, over all, we have a jam-up good crew in the North end, a fine supervisor and except when they get behind after storms and floods, they are pretty fast at correcting road conditions and ditches when they are aware there is a problem. I’m sure those of you who live up here and have noticed, will agree, our people do a good job. Just for the record…there’s lots of county workers who would love to work up here, given the opportunity…there’s just something about working with folks who get along and don’t mind working!
To Jay- They will put those buses on other buses & do away with those buses. I don’t mean to sound nasty, but it sounds like you know it all, but you really do not know what is going on. Maybe you need to drive before you talk
Jay why are you so down on bus drivers? ARE YOU ONE? Do you work for the road department and your not used to people working? Are you just a side road watcher? Maybe you need to think about the taxes and not taking away from our children. Because have you every drove a bus with children on it. We could say things about your job, like cut you and take more taxes out so we can be paid.
Remember they have GPS on there buses and the county know
what stop they make and were the bus is at all times. So ha ha. Do you have a job that can be monitored? If so let us know, don’t be shamed.
Next year we’ll be down a school in Century, so there won’t be a need for AYP routes to BES or EWMS. How does the district transportation office plan to take advantage of this savings, since these routes are no longer needed? Will the buses be reassigned to other areas of the county or will the district “create” new routes where there is already coverage around the north end. Without a true business mindset because the government doesn’t use “real money,” I predict the district will remain inefficient as usual and there’ll be the same number of buses on the road in the north end. The end goal is not to terminate drivers, but employ only the number truly required to accomplish the job, and if this needed service can be done cheaper by contracting out busing, then the district, being good stewards of the taxpayers’ money, is obligated to us to do what is best for our dollars.
Maybe you people that think we don’t have enough children on our buses, should ask how many miles we travel to pick- up the few we don have. If you live on the north end and travel our road like Camp Road and Pineville Rd and Hall-Jones and also Miller Road you would know that our roads are bad. Why don’t you talk about cutting the county workers on the northend road department. Because they don’t do any work and if we could get parents and citizens to call in to Kevin White. Your tax money is good just for the south end. Just the other day I ask the county workers were they were from they were on Bratt Rd fixing a ditch and they said 9 mile rd that bad were are all of the county workers on the nothend. They put down dirt on pineville rd were no one lives and the other part which is the south end of pineville has a lot of holds, the operator layed back in the grader and feet on the dash, no one around but us driving by. The roads are Not good for our students.
But us being the professional drivers we are, we get your children to school safe and on time. Even through the bad weather. The county boss say just drive slower. Maybe you all just don’t understand the responibilty we have.
Thank you RDB.
Again, Make a proposal that will work for all and be cost effective.
No, the school times are NOT fine as they are. I have elementary kids catching the bus at 6 a.m.(while it is still dark), meaning waking up at 5, so they must be in bed by about 7 to get the sleep they need. Then I have middle school kids catching the bus at 9 a.m. and not getting home until 6:00. That mean that in the winter time, it’s well past dark before they get here and have to walk down a busy road in the dark to get home and it’s even worse when it’s raining. On top of that, dinner can’t be served until they get home, so the elementary school kids are eating right before they go to bed which is a no-no. This also means that we can’t do any kind of extracurricular activities….no sports, no scouts or 4-H, no band, no clubs, no church, no nothing during the week. It’s totally and completely idiotic to have it scheduled this way.
Yes, I do have suggestions. Go to a variation of the old times. Elementary starts at 8:00 and gets out at 3. Middle start at 9 and let out at 3:30. High school starts at 7:30 and lets out at 2:30. Kids don’t get home after dark or leave in the mornings before daylight. High schoolers are not out on the highways in the middle of rush hour traffic. There is enough time to allow sports, church and other activities. Kids aren’t eating and then brushing their teeth and hopping into the beds.
That’s just one common sense solution. How many more do you want?
I think those who have better suggestions need to get it in gear and propose a better plan, making everything work. You folks just want to whine and do nothing to correct the problems.
Maybe someone should do some more research themselves before posting reckless comments about cutting buses, and making statements about how many ride a bus. It not always as simple as what you think you see. Drive a school bus for one week, and then come back and see what the comments will be. These drivers are severly underappreciated and undercompensated for the amount of stress that they are placed under. Escambia County School Board just don’t get it, with out bus drivers, the teachers don’t have students to teach, and without students the teachers can’t get paid, and with out pay you have no teachers. We should be looking for ways to take better care of our drivers than looking for ways to cut them. Make the same cuts to the teachers and you would see them quit, unless they are already at retirement. Bus Operators are the very backbone of the the entire school system, but they get treated as if they was a infected body part that you can just cut off to stop the spread of infection. You know its funny how we don’t mind voting in a tax increase to fund ball parks or fire houses or sherriff cars, but we complain when it comes to the most important thing we all are relying on to make our futures and our country a better place, our kids, and the people it takes to help the gain that ability. I say lets move the penny tax over to education, and put the parks back in the hands of the communities as it once was.
I like the times.
Somebody has to do the whining. When they take buses off road and kids are riding longer then they’re gonna whine for the buses to be put back on road, because jr. is getting to hot and getting home too late.
omg this is so weird why cant they leave the school times and dtes alone they qre perfectly fine the way they are now
There are a thousand ways this very troubled and mismanaged transportation department could save money annually. Hopefully at some of today’s meetings input provided will not only be accepted and reviewed as cost efficient/effective, but adhered too for much needed change!
Maybe the district should contract transportation like Santa Rosa County. A public records request could shed some light on how much Santa Rosa spent on bussing before contracting transportation and compare that to what it costs them now.
The hard question is did the district actually take more than 24 buses off the road because it should have been more due to the fact that there are still full size buses operating in the north end with only a handful of students on them. This can’t be cost efficient way to do business and these small routes should be consolidated today. With this the district can immediately start savings money, but this would mean that someone would have to think outside of the box.