Fayette County Board of Education to consider new school start times for 2007-2008

In an effort to minimize long bus rides, late bus drop offs and early morning bus pick up times, the school board will consider adjusting start and dismissal times at every school in the district. The possible changes – 15 minutes or less for most schools in the county – are designed to improve bus service for kids and better utilize transportation resources.

Every day the more than 150 school bus drivers employed by the Fayette County Public Schools travel nearly 15,000 miles with the goal of providing our students with safe and efficient transportation from home to school and back. The mission of the transportation department is to provide on time delivery at school and home, with reasonable ride times and safe, comfortable loadings.

For the past several years, new housing developments, increased traffic congestion, expanded service demands and the local effects of a nationwide bus driver shortage have created an increasing problem with school bus transportation. Our current system of four start times with 30 minute intervals was developed more than eight years ago and simply does not provide enough time between sessions for our school bus drivers to run the 480 routes needed to transport students throughout the county.

As a result, bus pick up times have had to be moved earlier, bus routes have had to be extended, and buses are late dropping students off at school and taking them home in the afternoon far too often. To fix the situation, the school board is discussing a proposal to adjust school start and dismissal times at every school in the district. The board is expected to vote on the changes at its action meeting on May 21.

The recommendation was developed after more than two years of study and review, which included input from community, parents and staff. We tried to postpone making these adjustments as long as we could, but the situation has reached a critical point. Our goal was to find a solution that would improve bus service for students while avoiding disruption to families as much as possible. For 47 percent of students in the school district, the start and dismissal time change would be just 5 minutes. For 41 percent of the students in the district, the proposal is a 15 minute shift. For 11 percent of the district’s students, start and dismissal times will change by 25 minutes. And the biggest change affects less than 1 percent of the students in the district who attend a special program.

More information is available in the following documents:
Presentation about the start time proposal (Microsoft PowerPoint document)
List of proposed start times showing how the proposal would affect your child's school (Adobe Acrobat document)

Questions about the proposal can be directed to Mary Browning at 381-4165, your school principal, or Superintendent Stu Silberman at 381-4000.

Written questions will also be accepted via email.

Families are invited to come and get a taste of cultures from around the globe Thursday, March 22, at the Fayette County Regional World Language Festi

Families are invited to come and get a taste of cultures from around the globe Thursday, March 22, at the Fayette County Regional World Language Festival. The theme of the event is “Explore the World … Discover Your Future.”

Increasing opportunities for Fayette County Public School students to study world languages, exposing students to other cultures and helping students understand the connection between their studies and the real world were three major goals outlined in the 2020 Vision recommendations designed to ensure that every student receives a world class education. Part competition, part cultural exploration, the World Languages Festival is one vehicle to accomplish these goals.

In order to compete in the state world language contest, Fayette students must first prove their prowess at a regional festival in categories such as grammar, vocabulary, oral proficiency, costumes, drama and dance.

While middle and high school students are competing, students of all ages will be able to choose from arts and crafts activities from France, Spain, Japan and Africa, mini-language lessons in Farsi, Swahili, Japanese and Portuguese, international Internet scavenger hunts, story-telling from around the world or dance lessons to include the rumba, cha-cha, salsa and cumbia.

Student art work and construction models will also be on display. Former Gov. Martha Layne Collins will be the key note speaker during the event’s general session at 7 p.m. An international café in the first floor art gallery will offer tastes of food from around the world for just $3 a plate.

The festival will be at the downtown branch of the Lexington Public Library from 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on March 22. Free parking is available in the library garage, the LFUCG garage and the Courthouse garage.

Press Release by Lisa Deffindall, FCPS.