Dexter schools make changes to busing system
Dexter Community Schools officials have made changes to the district's busing system that take effect Tuesday.
The district will change from a one-hub to a dual-hub bus system, which could mean slight differences in morning pick-up times and slightly later afternoon drop-off times. The district is adding the second hub to reduce the walking distance for students. Buses have been dropping students off in the morning at a central hub from which they walk to their individual schools.
"Cornerstone students will have no walk; Mill Creek and Bates students' walks will be cut down, and Wylie students will have a slightly longer walk," said Sean Burton, transportation director for the Dexter school district. "The current hub is between Bates and Wylie, and the additional hub will be at Cornerstone."
Another change is that there will now be a consistent bus procedure for all students in any kind of weather, and no need for an alternate inclement weather plan. Up until now the district had to alert parents whenever there was inclement weather and it was necessary to go to an alternate transportation plan, which caused students to arrive home as much as 30 minutes later than usual. The new system will remain consistent in all types of weather.
"The more consistent you can make the system, the safer it is," said Burton.
Changes to the Dexter schools' transportation plan for students take effect Tuesday.
The letter states, "Although the plan may seem complicated, the impact to your student will be minimal and plenty of assistance to guide them through the transition in the initial days will be provided by staff, volunteers, and our safety patrol."
Changes to Dexter's transportation system were implemented at the start of the school year, and it took several weeks for things to run smoothly. Those changes included having students in kindergarten through 12th grade ride buses together and dropping off students at a central hub rather than at individual school buildings. The goal is to save as much as $500,000 a year.
For more details on the latest changes, go to the Dexter schools transportation website.
Lisa Carolin is a freelance reporter for AnnArbor.com. For more Dexter stories, visit our Dexter page.
Comments
chalkboardjoe
Wed, Nov 24, 2010 : 9:37 a.m.
@Mark brings up an excellent point. The actual budget figure for transportation savings is $400,000 and information recently posted on the DCS website states that they have adjusted their budget to include an additional $226,850 in new/additional/unbudgeted expenses as a result of the transportation reorganization (added ops secretary @ 50,000, transportation restructure startup @ 34,300, added 4 new routes @ 110,000, and routed for increase ridership @ 82,500). Budget figures do not account for: *the 7 new buses purchased, *lease costs from other districts because Dexter did not have enough buses to cover field trips, athletic transportation,back-up buses for out-of-service replacements, *wages for mechanics to drive buses because there were not enough bus drivers, *additional wages paid to teachers for overseeing bus loops, *let alone how costs will increase with going from the much ballyhoed central bus loop to the recent two-loop system noted in the article *and the soon to be constructed outdoor shelters for the bus loops. DCS administration and board members were very confident each time they told about a projected savings of $400,000 and yet DCS has additional real costs ($226,850) only 2 1/2 months into the reorganization that are over %50 of the projected savings. Kudos to the treasurer, finance committee and finance director. Once again Dexter has squandered the resources of the taxpayer. And DCS is poised to waste even more money for a duplicate IB program that only 40 some kids have signed up for and requires the district to completely change their HS scheduling (that was just changed 4 years ago). Which during that 4 years of trimester schedules for teachers, the district finally realized that the scheduling resulted in over $700,000 of inefficiencies each year. Brilliant!
Mark
Tue, Nov 23, 2010 : 9:03 a.m.
Why is this $500,000 figure still being used? The projected savings are much lower now. Just because the story has been run before, doesn't mean reporters should pull old facts from the previous articles as if they are still true. It matters how much money is ultimately saved. So that's a detail I would be more careful with.
jns131
Tue, Nov 16, 2010 : 10:27 a.m.
Great job Dexter!! And you didn't have to consolidate nor privatize either. See what happens when the administration works with transportation? Wow. Glad to hear.