001Okay. All right. Um, call to order the >> No, you're not live yet. >> Oh, >> okay. It said >> it'll say it, but it's not actually true quite yet. >> Okay. Let me know. >> Call to order the No, you're not live yet. >> Oh, now you're set. >> Okay. Hi, everyone. Um, we're call to order the ad hoc school start time committee at 4:03 p.m. And public comment. Do we have anyone for public comment, Jen? >> Um, your first item of of of um business is the approval of minutes. >> Apologize. I was moving along. Okay. Our last meeting was October 27th and uh we're gonna approve the minutes. Uh do we need a Do you want to show a hand second? How would you >> No, you're on you're a live stream
002so I have to do it by a roll call. >> So I I need I need a motion. Um Miss Schustster, are you making it or >> I am making it? Yes. >> Okay. All right. Um so if everyone can just bear with me. This is in no particular order. Um, Miss Schustster, >> yes. >> Um, Miss Bradley, >> yes. >> Miss Rebuse, >> abstain just because I wasn't there. >> Yep. Dr. Gold Delay. We'll circle back. Miss Cloud Ingram. >> Yes. >> Could you not hear me regen? Yes. >> Yes, I can hear you now, Carol. Thank you. Okay, a motion passes >> for uh with one abstension. >> Okay, just just to recap for our new board members because our next um agenda item is well, let's do public comment and then we'll
003recap. So, sorry. >> No uh no public comment received. >> Okay, thank you. Okay. So, just to recap from our October meeting, um we joined the BOA superintendence meeting to invite them along to explore um the possibility of changing the the school start time. And of course, we want to follow along as a complete district even though we're partially regionalized. And Jen has is going to share with us the feedback from the superintendent that she has re >> Yep. And so, um, the first feedback I received was from Bethany. Um it was actually prior to the elections. So it was under um a a different board and board chair and um their response at that time was no thank you. Um they feel that the start times work for them as an elementary district currently
004the way that they are. And while they acknowledged the potential benefits for middle and high school students as an elementary district, they were not in favor of looking at changes to the school start times. I will say that because they did have a change in leadership from when I got the feedback in November to now, um I circled back around to see if there was any different response um with a new board and a new board chair. Um and there is not. So, um Bethany is not interested in looking at changes to school start times. Um the feedback from Orange, which I think um Megan was actually either watching or part of the or in attendance at the board meeting, um was um I would I'd say it can be captured um by what Dr.
005Scarpetti said, not at this moment. Um, there's concern from Orange about the clauses in their contract specific to the start times for their teachers and they would rather have that not be a factor before making a commitment to changing school start times. Um, from a practical standpoint, if they committed to changing start times, the teachers would have the upper hand in bargaining that out of the contract. So they would rather make sure it's not in the contract before approaching it. Um so their their response was respectfully maybe in a couple of years after the contract is changed. Um and then um the response from Woodbridge um was again a recognition of the benefits for middle and high school students. Um, Woodbridge um is concerned because they do not have any before school programming available um
006unlike I believe the other two districts and so they saw that as a real shortcoming that would prevent them from changing start times. Um so they were not interested in pursuing that. However, um in their initial response to me, they were interested um in a transportation study if AMD was going to pay for it. Um, so they would appreciate feedback on on transportation that could improve their transportation um, even if it wasn't coupled with changes in school start times. >> Okay. U, do you happen to know when orange teacher contracts are renegotiated? I >> think they're in the first year of a three-year contract. >> Okay. So, it is >> Yeah, I think they said they had two years left. >> Okay. So, year one of three. Okay. Thank you. Okay. And just Okay. Thank
007you so much for for sharing that, Jen. I appreciate the update and I appreciate the position. I'm sure everyone does appreciates the position of our elementary school districts and the previous in previous meetings board our committee members were expressed interest in pursuing a transportation study. So Jen along in our packet is a potential bell and transportation study from transfinder. >> Yep. So, if I can just sort of give way of background again of how we got to this. Um, so following our October meeting, um, I reached out to my um, SCASA superintendence group and asked if anybody had done a transportation study. Um, at the same time, Miss Lumis um, reached out through CASBO to see if anybody's done transportation studies because transportation typically falls under um, the finance director's um, purview. Um what we
008found was that a large number of school districts when they do transportation studies do so in conjunction with their transportation provider. So for example, if first student is my transportation provider, um First Student has a branch of their company that conducts transportation studies and so they complete those for the district. um with independent owner operators and our system structured the way it is um we don't have that kind of um uh provider. So, um, Transfinder, um, which is a software company that essentially creates bus routes for people, um, came back as the, um, most commonly recommended transportation study provider, um, out of out of all the ones that, um, you know, across several school districts. Um so um I actually was able to I got this information in time to share at my last um
009BOA meeting um and so um there are two pieces of the um study. The first is that they would look at our routing. Um and then the second is that once they have the route information, they would be able to do a bell time study to see where adjustments to um runs would be possible. Um the key to um the routing piece is that um is under phase one the first bullet amidity regional high school would or well it's really AMD regional school district um will provide the student demographic data for all of our AMD students and the three elementary schools oops um to enable um geocoding and uh transfinder would geocode all the students Um what this means is that we would need to provide the um addresses, the names, the number of students
010at each pickup and the exact time of each pickup for every student in our district and every student in the elementary districts. Um when I shared that information, so two limitations there. Um the way that our bus routes are planned, we do not have pickup times for any of our bus stops, um they list a start time and then they list the order that the stops occur in. Um but none of them have an actual pickup time. Um and certainly for us at the middle and high school, we don't actually have the names of the students associated with those bus stops because many of many but not all are community stops. So kids come from different addresses. Um the elementary districts um expressed um significant concern in sharing the um PII of their students with
011a company that they are not contracting with. Um and so they um said that they would not provide us with that information and Transfinder essentially in their conversations with Miss Lumis told her they can't do a transportation study for adjusting start times without having the information from the elementary districts. Um so that was that was kind of the logistical end of it. Um I will say on the other side of it um the all three superintendent and I am actually um in agreement with them are extremely cautious of a transportation study that would in any way make a recommendation that independent owner operators are not the most efficient use of or efficient model of transportation across the districts. um the three of them recognize what I recognize that that is a um political quagmire um
012that they do not want to put any of their boards of education into the middle of and my advice would be similar to our board. Um so that's kind of where we are with the transportation study. Um it's not that expensive. It's actually um reasonable at $21,000 because we heard anything from 5,000 to 45,000. So, I would say for a district of our size, it was a reasonable quote. Um, but it's not going to give us any um benefit um to um to send them our information if they do not have information from the elementary schools. >> So, Jen, what is it? >> Ei, can I ask? >> So, let me have Donna first and then Carol. Yeah. What is it? What is a PI? >> Personally identifiable information. >> So it would be the
013students. >> Yeah. >> Students names and addresses, >> right? I can see the uh started reading through this. I started circling things like demographics and wondering why we we need that information. So when you first explained that typically transportation transportation studies are done by the busing companies, but we have like um definitely um an issue with identifying information. Um so I can definitely appreciate this. And then the other obstacle I'm hearing, correct me if I'm wrong, is having the owner operators buy in. >> Yes. And and and it wouldn't so much be their buy in. It would be the ramifications of the results of the transportation study. >> Okay, thank you. Okay, Carol, >> thanks Jen. Um, for the information on the transportation study. So, I have a a couple like comments and and questions.
014One one I'll start with my comments. Um, I don't think it's in our best interest to have um our current providers as part of the transportation study. I think it should be totally independent. I know you said I think you said best practices for the transportation company to be part of it. Um, I I disagree. I think having just an independent transportation study uh will be preferable for us. I also don't see why they would need PII. Why don't they just have those Oh, Carol actually just dropped off. >> So, I have >> So, let me let me ask you, it's Kathy. So, Jen, um it's interesting. Why would the lower schools, the grammar schools be interested in the transportation study if they're not interested in participating? >> Because they would like to I think
015everybody would like to know if there are any opportunities to reduce the number of buses that we run to our schools. So I think everybody would be interested in looking at that piece um to see if you know they don't need 22 buses and we don't need 26 buses. But in order to achieve that, um, if we are going with a third-party vendor, as Carol suggested, that's outside of our independent owner operators, then that person or party needs some very specific information um that they've they've listed out and the elementary districts are not comfortable sharing that information with the bus companies. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Jen. I just saw that presented. Um I'm in the school parking lot actually. >> Well, no wonder why your reception is so bad. >> So um so they
016don't need they do they do need code, right? They want to think like this other district like what the best options are. They do need >> or even >> So, Carol, you're you're really breaking up badly. It's very difficult. I don't know if anybody else um got that statement. It sounded like she was questioning why they need um PII. >> Um they need to know um how many, you know, the ages of the students, right? because they're going to have to plan this out over multiple years to see if you know the adjustment is is something that can be sustained for more than one year. So you need to know the grades and the ages of the students. They need to know the exact homes where those students live in order to determine where the
017most effective say community stop should be. and they so so it's that kind of information that they would and and then even for right now they would need to know um the um the the route sheet with the exact time for all of those children. So in terms of the the suggestion from Carol that we not have our providers as part of this, the providers are the only people who can give that information. They are the only people who have a run sheet where they would at least be able to list the times of those stops. The school, each school district would have to try to fill in which kid is at those stop, their actual home address and their grade levels. And that is not something that the elementary districts are interested in participating
018in. And you know, I I can't um I I can't I I haven't done a transportation study, so I can't argue with the information that Transfinder is requesting. Um that is what they need, they believe they need in order to have a successful transportation study. And I am not going to um take a take a side in any way against what the elementary superintendent feel is what's best for their district. Autumn, I know you've had your hand up for a while. Um and since Carol's not back on yet because she's probably still driving around from the school. >> Carol's gonna call in, Jen. So, um she said she was gonna call in. Do you have a call-in number? Um, it would have been No, I don't think I actually do. Um, are you able to
019see that, Tom? >> Yeah, it's this I don't have one. >> We don't have a call-in number. >> Okay. >> I'm sure we do, but when we set it up, it was set up for a Zoom. >> I'll I'll check the back end, Dr. Buyers. >> Okay. I just let her know that that we don't have a call-in number. Uh, but checking. Okay. Autumn, did you want to contribute to anything? >> Sure. Hi there. >> Your hand up. >> Hi there. Um, sorry, you might you might hear little baby noises in the background. Um, do we have I I'm wondering um because I'm new to the committee. Um, and when we talked to the other towns, did we present any information on other towns similar to ours that have made uh these changes? Um, we
020may be and and Tom, you actually I think have more information about this than I do. We may be one of the few remaining districts that have a independent owner operator system left in the state of Connecticut. >> Okay. >> Um, so um, and I think you've been nice about it, Tom, sometimes in the last district where the superintendent did away with it, then the superintendent was let go. M so and Jen, would you mind explaining again? I I think maybe I'm still struggling to understand your point around that of like the concerns uh of it sounds like if if we get a study whether it's Transfinder maybe I don't know maybe we ended up um going with another company that there's concerns around the recommendation of a separate type of transportation system that's not
021owner operated. Is that right? >> Yeah. So I mean the the independent owner operators are um and and I guess this is going to be more uh sort of qualitative observation from me. Um they are um pillars of our community. Um they have owned um businesses um and are deeply embedded in our community. Um a former independent owner operator is first selectman of the town of Orange. um a current independent owner operator was on the board of selectmen for the town of Woodbridge for a very long time and um our largest independent owner operator is one of the biggest companies in Bethany um and cons carries considerable weight in terms of a tax base as well as a voice um in local politics. Um, it is an incredibly political little hotbed. Um, and um, I
022learned that very quickly when I first came on as a young superintendent. Um, because um, one of the obvious cost savings and efficiencies, at least at that time, was to look at a larger company that um, could certainly provide busing perhaps at a lower cost. I don't even know that that's true anymore. But um there certainly are efficiencies that can come with that and um that was um quickly um shut down and I think that all I think all other superintendents in the BOA are also um sort of um raised on the same perspective. Um it is I had board members who were proposing it and it was extremely contentious. Um so it is not it is something that you could as a board decide to take on. um it is not um I would
023not recommend it. I think it would be a huge distraction from everything else that we do and I also think in the in the long run it would um be harmful for our relationships with our towns. Um and it would it would impair the the ability of the district to have success in anything else that we want to do. >> Thank you. >> Sorry, can you guys hear me? Hopefully I don't disconnect again. >> You're you're much better this time. >> Okay. So, you know, Jen, I appreciate everything you just said. Um, but I don't, you know, I have a different perspective. I don't think it has to be that way. I understand the fear, right? But we're not trying to go another way and like hire a larger company or anything like that. Like
024that is not the outcome of this. It's how can we work together with our existing bus transportation partners to make things more efficient and also to shift things in a way that's better for our kids, our middle and high school kids. So that's it. I mean to me the coming from a district where we had large bus company for transportation, it was a hot mess. Like I I I you know when I talk to other people in other districts, I rave about our transportation system. Our buses are rarely late. The bus drivers show up. I mean, you cannot That's the advantage of the owner operator system, right? And I think I think other community members would agree with me in, you know, with those comments and not want to lose that. Um, so, you know,
025and that that that works hand in hand with getting kids to school on time, things like that. It's reliable. Um so so I'll say that I I your point well taken that this is a political hotbed. I do think our primary concern is like our students well-being and so they are we contract with them. They have to be able to work with us and come along with us when change comes. So I I am in support of the transportation studies. I'm also in support of just reassuring them that this is this is a partnership, right? Like they are subcontractors, but this is certainly a partnership and a relationship that we don't intend to end. So, I think some reassurance, but I do think it would be important to have the transportation committee. But see, the
026point I was making before was that they don't need names. They do need information from our transportation providers, bus stops, right, and time. And I think they could absolutely come up with time. Um, but for the elementary districts, they just need stops and like maybe the time they make those stops, not name. We don't even need to deal with those home addresses if they don't. >> Again, I I cannot compel the elementary districts to share information with us that they do not want to share with us. >> No, no, no. Not the elementary district. We actually don't need that from the elementary district. What we need, we all use the same buses, right? What we need is the bus company to share the stops. That's it. >> No, no, no, no, no. They they they
027those are that is they remember they have a contract with those districts for those buses. That is their information. That that would not be appropriate for the bus company to share information about the elementary students that are not part of our district. >> Not about the students, about the stops. Like >> again, I am only relying what Transfinder said they need and they need to know the students, the addresses, the grade levels, and the times of the stops because that way they can make an accurate multi-year study. And the elementary districts are not comfortable with that information being shared with Transfinder. And I cannot compel them to do that. And it would be inappropriate to ask our bus contractors to circumvent the wishes of the superintendent to provide that information so that we can conduct
028the transportation study. >> And this >> Carol, this is Megan. Just can I just chime in for a second? >> Megan, let me just finish. That's not what I'm suggesting. And I think Transfinder is not the only company out there. And we can search to see how else this can be done. I'll stop there. Go ahead, Megan. I I was just going to say that like as contractors with districts like they're signing a privacy clause. So for us to go around the elementary district like we'd be asking them basically to violate their contracts with the elementary districts to give us that information >> is a bus is where the bus stops private information. the they need the home addresses because that helps them to make a determination of whether or not where the bus stop
029is is also the most efficient place. >> Right? >> So, and I'm saying in lie of sharing private information, can they perform the study with just the stops from the elementary district? No private information, just where the bus stops. That's not private information as far as I know. No, because where the bus stop isn't necessarily the home address and it doesn't tell them anything about the number of children getting on at that stop and that's the type of information they need for a comprehensive transportation study. >> So then my suggestion is that we go back to the drawing board and look to see what other transportation company companies provide transportation studies and if one can be done without private information. That's my suggestion. So I I think that I I so I think we have
030to kind of focus on the two pieces of information we have here. The first being that you have three elementary districts that have no interest in engaging in a discussion of changing school start times and they do not wish to provide information that would help with a transportation study that could look at changing those school start times. Um, I understand Carol, you're suggesting to find a different company to use different information to see if they can do a transportation study that will still yield some sort of result for just our middle and high school students. Um, and we can certainly try to pursue that. Um, but it doesn't necessarily result in changing the school start time if the elementary and middle or elementary districts don't have interest in that. So, Jen, um I don't want
031to interrupt you if you're not finished with your thoughts. >> No, I'm I I just I'm I'm I'm just I'm I'm I'm just um trying to figure out where Right. The direction of the committee originally was to to see if the elementary districts wanted to participate in this so we could continue to work together collaboratively. And um you know there is um a lot of concern um that AMD will just decide to break off and do our own thing. And I think we talked about this a lot at the board meeting when this committee formed was that that was never our intention to separate from the bow. And I'm hearing feedback from the bow that they are not interested in engaging in this. And I just want to make sure that the intent of the
032committee hasn't changed from when it was created. um and that we are now looking to sort of move off from the bow and just look at changing things for us. Um and and and a lot of it was driven right by fiscal. So right now, you know, we have 26 buses and the elementary districts have the other 22 and if we do transportation studies and find out that we need 28 buses, right, that's a cost to us, but then we also don't need two of the ones we're sharing with them. So that becomes a cost to them. So I I just I I knew there was a fiscal consideration driving this and um and I I I was always under I was under the understanding that we go together because of the fiscal consideration. >>
033Okay. Um yes. Uh the initial desire was that we would all do this together and gauge interest. what you shared is that there's not interest except for maybe maybe orange in a couple years, >> right? >> And >> so so if I if I may make a suggestion, I think so I have sort of like the next item is recommendations to the board of ed. I think what would be appropriate is for this committee to go back and you we can report on the responses and the recommendation and and you can take it either one of two ways. Um but you can make a recommendation to continue to look at school start times without cooperation from the elementary districts at this point. Um, or you can make a recommendation to disband the committee for two
034years until, you know, and revisit it when Orange renegotiates a contract. Um, because I don't want you to be I don't want it to be disingenuous to the original committee, which was to see if the elementary districts were interested in this and to sort of get everybody to come along together to make this happen. But we also did discuss that if they didn't come along with us that we would look to see if there were efficiencies for us and what it would cost if we went on without sharing transportation costs. I don't know what that >> I recall that as well. >> I don't I'm not saying I have what it will be. Go ahead. I'm sorry, Carol. >> Oh, I I recall the same thing. Um, I I my understanding was that it would
035be best to do this together, but that us getting more information, possibly a transportation study at least, did not hinge on them agreeing to sort of explore this together with us. But it was more of a, you know, we share transportation services and more of sort of a a courtesy and a way to um include them because we again share services and costs. >> Okay. So, Jen, our owner operators, our independent owner operators, is there more than one? >> Yes. >> Okay. How many? I I don't know. I'm asking the question. How many? >> Um, one >> um So, one, two, three, four, five. Five that I believe are under like that come onto our budget. Tom is counting and okay, I'll let him finish counting. >> I have five on our budget >> and
036then I believe that the elementary districts pick up at least maybe three more. >> I can think of three, potentially a fourth at least. >> So we have we have five and they have potentially up to three to four additional hours. Well, they have our five because we all use those same ones, but then they actually have more contributing to their 22 buses. So, they probably have in total eight, maybe nine. >> So, how many how many actual bus runs or buses do we share with? >> We pay for 26. So there's 26 runs that we pay for and then the other half delivers elementary kids and they pay for 22 runs and the other half of their 22 runs deliver high school kids. And I I don't remember exactly how that 22 is allocated
037out but um obviously Orange has the most and Bethany has the fewest. So overall 48 runs that are 48 buses that are running each day. >> So if I can ask, what's the downside of going ahead with a transportation study? I'm I'm not sure it's going to garner us any information without knowing how to adjust how the elementary runs can be adjusted at the same time because the only thing that we're looking at are our high school and middle school runs and these things operate symbiotically like they they operate together. So you're missing half of the data to do a study. >> Okay. So >> I guess I'm not convinced that we don't I'm not convinced that the bus company sort of working together providing information again not PII to the company doing the transportation
038study and not like addresses. I'm I'm still unclear um why that can't be done. So I think that's something I'd love I' I'd like an answer. Like I'm I'm I'm almost certain there's a company out there that does not need to geocode. They can geocode our kids addresses because it's like we're asking for the transportation study, but the elementary districts don't have to share addresses. But if they could at least incorporate stops or even number of stops or some data that doesn't provide PII, that would be helpful. That would that would give us lots of information, >> right? So the stops and the number of kids on the stops. So, how many kids they pick up at a stop? >> And I'm almost positive that's data that they use for other reasons that families have
039no idea about. Like, I mean, it's we're it's 2026. Not asking for any PII, but there is data. there are they should be able to share unless there's a fear of us no longer going with private owner operators which again I said I I personally value them I think other families across the district value them this is simply like we need to make decisions based on the best interest of our kids it's not that expensive and my recommendation to the board would be that you go ahead with it >> well I think you can't recommend a transportation study until I go back and actually find a transportation study company that will complete one of these without the data that Transfinder is asking for. What do what do the owner operator companies do? I mean, do
040I mean you you said you said that the the bigger companies offer this as well. They they look at their data. They're going to look at data. They're going to look at efficiencies internally as well. Um, >> I mean honestly and again I I I think the owner operators just because they live in the area they just craft it the bus routes the oldfashioned way like they just look I I I hate to I don't have any other I mean I know they aren't operating a software system. I know, you know, I mean, I we get their bus runs and Excel spreadsheets and um I do not believe that they are using at least the ones who we operate with. I don't believe that they use anything to build this. They use their knowledge of
041the towns and student addresses and where kids live and that is how they build the bus routes >> and and that's not and that that was great, but you know, it's 2026 and there's so much technology to help us with deficiencies. So, you know, there was a study done I think I sent you the article, Jen, and maybe uh Donna, but in the San Francisco Bay area, and I I read it, it's been a while now since um I read it because of this subcommittee, but I want to say they did not geopo, they used stops, but anyway, again, there are other options out there that won't require that. And it might actually save the bus. This might actually save the bus companies money. Might save them gas. >> Have we gone back to ask
042them the bus companies, Jen, >> if they have anything like this? No. No, we we haven't asked them because um again, I don't I I don't believe that they have any software like this. Um, if anybody does, it would be one of our larger companies. Um, and I could certainly check with them, but I think they maybe have more transportation routing software, which is not exactly the same as a transportation study, per se. Um, you know, I can I I mean, again, I can go back to the drawing board and try to find another company that is not a bus company that would be capable of providing this and see if they have a different set of data requirements um that could be used. I I actually have. So I reached out to um um
043summit at the school of management who was part of this whole rerouting and school start time change study and spoke with her probably about two months ago. Um just to hear about how they did that. um if this subcommittee is interested um I asked her the next time we met if that I'd ask you if it would be helpful to speak with her to talk about the experience and sort of how they you know how they did theirs um to determine the like optimal way to shift start times across a district that had both you know middle high and elementary school. So if if >> I'm sorry, which elementary district was this? >> Or sorry, which Connecticut district was this? >> No, not Connecticut district. It was in San Francisco. >> Um, so we can
044listen to San Francisco, but I would have to think the routing for a city. The >> No, it's not San Francisco, Jen. It's the person who like led who who dealt with the person at the pool who like had the master sheets about uh for the stops, things like that. So it's not the district, it's the people who actually like executed the study. So she was part of the team, it was part of like dissertation work. Uh they've like formed a company since that does transportation studies. But anyway, I just think she's part of our community, part of the BO community, and she'd be happy to come and share her experience if we're interested in in listening. So just wanted to >> I I would actually just be more interested if she could share her
045company that did the transportation studies. so that we can just contact them and get an a quote and what would be required. >> Sure. Yep. >> I would be interested in >> that >> he has to say as well, >> but we can um anyone else. No, I just want to say that as I think about to the the survey that came back with the um uh information on like students and parents and just the information that we know about later start times. um Bradolescence that I I do think that while um you know the lower schools aren't ready for it at this time, I I do feel strongly that we should find another path in the meantime to just even if it is us gathering more information from other um transportation um analysis companies,
046getting more information from our bus company. But um I just want to to emphasize emphasize that point. >> Thank you. I agree. And this is Megan and I apologize if you guys talked about this in previous committees, but have we discussed anything besides the transportation impact of this? >> No, we haven't even gone really past that. And I think part of that was because if and again could be wrong. Um I I thought that the the will of the board was they did not want to have a cost increase because of busing essentially. So if the if a start time couldn't be because because it's such a significant piece of this. So if anything resulted in a change in sort of the allocation of the 26 and the 22 buses then because of the budgetary
047impact that would be the point at which it wouldn't seem feasible. And again if the will of the board has changed and people are willing to entertain either increases or potential decreases um in cost of buses then we can move forward. But um but we started with this because busing is the shared service we have and if we can't continue to share that service we weren't going to pursue anything else like the questions of athletics or kids having jobs after school or impact on child care all those others were secondary to I think the financials. I I guess my thought was that some of those questions the data may be more easily gathered and might lead us to a conclusion before we could get to a conclusion on this. So, as an example, like do
048we have a sense of what the start and end times are of the other schools in our area and region? Like I I'm just thinking like from an athletics perspective, I know what time, for example, like middle school games start. I'm assuming all the schools that we play in our area must have similar times. If we get out later, that means kids are going to have to leave and miss out on academic time in order to get to those games, as an example. Um, and then kind of the third piece of that, not just like jobs, but like other extracurricular activities that kids in our area participate in. You know, like I know my kids in multiple of different activities start as early as 3:15, for example. Um, so I'm just recognizing that there's spillover
049effects that aren't directly controlled by AMD and to the extent that we are alone um, relative to all the other schools and communities that we interact with like this could create a real hardship on families beyond like our kids getting to sleep in a little bit more. So, I can share at least some of the preliminary data. Um, it was really around when the BOAS were starting and so we collected that and kind of contract language, but I did have an analysis of athletics. It wasn't for the middle school. Um, it was just for the high school and kind of how many kids would be affected, which teams would have been impacted most, the number of hours of instructional time they would have missed. Um, so I can get I can share that with you
050in autumn so at least you're caught up with what yeah that would be helpful other members of the committee received and I I'll just send it to everybody so everybody has it again but you probably remember it but um I can at least get you that information. Um and then I think the other thing I could do um in the meantime um is I can collect data on the start and stop times for the SEC schools. um I would work with those because they are the ones that are our primary competition and where we would have the most um sort of yeah overlap with a a different start time. Um so I can get that data. Um but um but again, you know, our idea wasn't to was to not upset an apple cart too
051much if we just knew right out of the the gate it wasn't financially feasible. >> Right. I I don't think we've answered that question. So, if it is financially feasible or not. Um, if I recall correctly, the the sport that missed the most instruction time was golf. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Because um I guess because they have to get to a location. Uh so, yes. Um Go ahead. So, so I was going to say just in terms of um of where we stand um you know I think our action steps well we just summarize them. I will go back to the drawing board of looking for transportation companies. Um Carol if you can send me the name of the person who did the like what her transportation company is. I can follow through on that
052and then um and then we can um we can get that and see if we we get anything anything different from a proposal standpoint. Um and then I can get that other data around SEC schools. >> Okay, great. >> That sounds good. I can get you that information tomorrow then. >> Right. And Megan, just to answer your question, there are school districts that have changed their start time and it is variable, but Jen will send that she'll get that information and send it to us. I looked a while back when we first started considering this committee. Okay, >> I have to off. >> Oh, we still have forum. >> You said yes. Okay. So, we're Jen has the next steps. We're not going to be able to make any recommendations to the board at this
053time. Um item agenda agenda item number six. And Jen, what do you next meeting date? >> Um I think you'll we'll just have to see when we get another quote or two. So, Jen, Jen, I just have one question. Um, based on what information you have to provide a transportation company, right? Is there at any point um parents need to be aware even if it's just bus stops or whatever? >> Um, if it was our students, no. Um, because it is considered directory information. So, we can release that. Um, so, so no, it wouldn't be an issue if we had to provide our student information. >> Okay, thanks. >> So, Jen, one last question. Results of a transportation study. Would they be interested in perhaps sharing non-identifying information that is stops t stops times and
054the number of students that go on? It's just a question. >> So again, I'll cycle back and see what see if we have other companies we can work with and what they would need and then I'd follow up with the Bose super superintendent to see if they um would want to share that information. Um, the other thing I can do is I can go back to transfinder and ask them not to complete the bell schedule part and simply to look at the transportation study just to look and see if we have efficiencies in our routes. I mean, you could get five minutes maybe with that. So, you know, like buy five minutes of a start of a later start time with something like that. So I can I can see if that is a and
055something that they could offer. >> Right. Do you do you happen to know from our bus companies the earliest kids get picked up like when when the pickups start? I have been told that some kids are out very early. I don't want to I don't want to say times. >> Yeah. I mean, like especially for like our our our um like hub buses like to go to the tech schools and stuff, they're they're well before 6:30 in the morning, >> they they have a longer route, correct? >> Yeah. >> But what about the the non tech schools? Just the schools that are within our towns. >> I I don't know offhand. I mean, I think no ride can be much longer than an hour. So, I would think that some of them are starting around
0566:15 or 6:20, but I can I can try to find out. Um, it's on our website. You can find all of the the bus routes and what time they start because that's the only thing they provide and um and then, you know, they give the list of stops after that. But um yeah, you that's that's available on the website, but I I I would think that it's probably somewhere in the the 620 range at the earliest. I know that um like when we call snow days and stuff like that, they they have they like 6:30 is what they sort of anticipate as like their their need, you know, when they're rolling, so to speak, as as the drivers say. Is it possible to get how many kids are an hour away? >> Say that again.
057>> Is it possible to get the number of students that may have those long rides? >> Um, is the time? >> No, because again, right, that's part of the data. We don't have that. We would we can ask our bus companies for that, but I I don't want to expend too much effort for them yet until we like especially if I have to ask them to give a heavier lift on something else. Um, >> can you can you ask them if they what if they use a system just just out of curiosity >> for routing >> to Carol's point it's 2026 so >> yep I can ask >> okay thank you >> I may be wrong and Dr. Scarpetti probably would know best, but I was under the impression that in Orange it's one of
058the larger owner operators that makes the routes for everybody and then there's like some single owner operators that then run those routes that are created by >> That's exactly how we operate too. We have a we so Orange has a transportation coordinator and then Bethany Woodbridge and AMD share a transportation coordinator and they are one of our more established companies and they make the routes for everybody. >> Yep. >> Okay. I'm learning a lot here. >> Okay. >> I can tell you that four of those owner operators live within like like I trickor treat at their houses. Okay. So, they are definitely in the community. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, if anyone doesn't have any anything else, I I think uh Jen has a list of next steps. And once she gets that, I'll reach
059out to everyone about potential meeting dates and times. And if everyone we can adjourn. >> Uh Mr. Just for a point of information, one of the items, um, I quickly looked at the bus routes. Um, all the bus routes that are posted on the website, the earliest bus route is 6:30 and they range from all of our buildings from 6:30 to 652 for start times for all three locations. So, the earliest route of each building is 6:30. The latest route start time is 652. >> And they arrive by 7:18 at all three. Is that the >> I would assume so in that general time frame because students just can dismiss no earlier than >> Yeah, I think some of them arrive after that. They like they they can arrive right up to like 7:33. >>
060I understand that there are some buses that there's that come in later. Um >> um they do sometimes at the start of the year, but that's problematic for us. So we will if we see a pattern happening we will make an adjustment so that they arrive on time. >> They arrive is what they they can disembark at 7:24. Is that right? At the middle school. >> Yes. 7:24 at the middle schools and then they you know so so they will they will start disembarking anywhere from 7:24 but the buses can arrive after that because the kids just have to be in class by 7:34. >> Okay. And some arrive at 7:18. Is that what I heard? >> And the and the and in those cases, the students just sit on the bus until the drop
061off. And that and that's not through poor routing. It's just some days there's, you know, you think you have a kid at a stop and they're not there, so you just drive by. So like it routes will run faster and slower depending on ridership of the day. They're they're designed to arrive at 7:24. That doesn't always happen. >> Oh. Okay. So, Tom, just to confirm, the latest pickup is 652. >> Um, for the high school, there are a couple after 7 o'clock for Bethany. >> Okay. and some after seven. Okay, thank you. Okay, just finishing up notes. Okay. Okay. And no one else has anything we can adjourn at 459. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thanks everyone.