Bus Transportation Analysis for a Changed Start Time in the Millbury Public Schools

Worcester Polytechnic Institute Digital WPI Major Qualifying Projects (All Years) Major Qualifying Projects 2020-05-14 Bus Transportation Analysis for a Changed Start Time in the Millbury Public Schools Keryn S. Reno Worcester Polytechnic Institute Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/mqp-all Repository Citation Reno, K. S. (2020). Bus Transportation Analysis for a Changed Start Time in the Millbury Public Schools. Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.wpi.edu/mqp-all/7435 This Unrestricted is brought to you for free and open access by the Major Qualifying Projects at Digital WPI. It has been accepted for inclusion in Major Qualifying Projects (All Years) by an authorized administrator of Digital WPI. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Bus Transportation Analysis for a Changed Start Time in the Millbury Public Schools A Major Qualifying Project Submitted to the faculty of WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science Submitted by: Keryn Reno Advisor: Professor Sharon Johnson Sponsor: Millbury Public School District May 11, 2020 This report represents the work of WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review. For more information about the projects program at WPI, please see http://www.wpi.edu/academics/ugradstudies/project-learning.html Abstract The Millbury Public School System is examining the feasibility of later school start times for their adolescent students. Busing transportation is frequently cited as the major logistical set back in this change. This study analyzes four different potential transportation strategies to help guide informed decision making when determining busing during this district wide adjustment. The four options identified were: swapping start times among schools, pushing all start times later, reducing the number of iterations a bus takes, and purchasing additional buses to allow the high school to start at the same time as another school. ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank the following people for their time, information, and guidance that contributed to the development, progress, and success of this project. - Professor Sharon Johnson for her selflessness helping to guide me in this project and for helping me develop the project to its fullest potential. - Gregory Myers for providing me with the opportunity to complete a project for the Millbury Public School District, his eagerness to help, and for being open to allowing me to mold the project where I saw the most fit. - Richard Bedard for granting me access to an abundance of information that was necessary for this project to be successful, and for being open to meeting with me and discussing the operational aspects of busing and the school district. - The Millbury School Committee Members for allowing me the opportunity to present my research to the committee and for all of their thought provoking questions. iii Executive Summary Complications of busing logistics have long been the counterargument for school districts being unable to implement later start times for their adolescent students. The National Sleep Foundation advises that to better align with their natural biological clocks, instructional learning in the classroom for adolescents should not begin prior to 8:30 a.m. This study addresses four potential solutions for bus transportation that would allow the Millbury Public School District flexibility in permitting the Millbury Junior Senior High School the capability of a later start time. The major concerns for the four investigated scenarios was the feasibility of implementing the option, and the overall financial impact the option would have in comparison to the district’s current transportation budget. Bus companies operate with a tiered route and a tiered pricing system. The more iterations that a bus completes, the cheaper it is per run for the district. The Millbury Public School district currently runs ten regular size buses and one mini bus on three iterations, one iteration to each school. Each of these buses have a set cost per day per bus. The district also runs a mini bus for special education needs for each school. The four scenarios investigated were developed in collaboration with Mr. Gregory Myers, Superintendent of Schools, and Mr. Richard Bedard, School Business Manager. They include swapping school times, changing the start times of all schools, removing bus iterations, and adding additional buses. A brief summary of each is discussed below. Investigated Scenarios The first scenario, called the Swap option, is the idea to simply interchange the start and end times of Millbury Jr./Sr. High School (grades 7-12), and the Raymond E. Shaw School (grades 4-6). This allows monetary costs to basically remain the same, and routes to also remain the same. However, when doing the analysis, it was discovered that simply switching start and end times does not work with the current bus routes. Only 36% of buses would be on time in the afternoon to pick up high school students. To make the Swap option doable the high school would need to be granted a 10-minute later start in the morning than Shaw currently has. This would make Shaw’s new time 7:40 a.m. to 1:57 p.m. and the Millbury Jr./Sr. High School run time from 8:20 a.m. to 2:38 p.m. Elmwood would remain the same. The second scenario, known as the Push option is pushing the start and end times of the school day back by an optimal amount of time. This is similar to how the school district currently runs delays due to inclement weather. The costs and routes remain the same in this option. Push times of 20, 30 and 50 minutes were investigated. With the 20- minute push, the earliest pickup time would be 6:54 a.m. and the last drop off would be at 4:09p.m. For the 30-minute push, the earliest pick up would be at 7:04 a.m. and the latest drop off would be at 4:19 p.m. Finally, for the 50-minute push option, the earliest pick up would be at 7:24 a.m. and the last drop off would be at 4:39 p.m. The third scenario, known as the Reduce option, reduces the current three-tier bus route to a two-tier bus system. This removes one iteration of the current bus route, iv resulting in combining students in kindergarten through sixth grade on the same bus. The first iteration continues the same routes that the high school currently uses. The second iteration requires 12 buses and includes stops at both Shaw, Elmwood and additionally the Assumption School when needed. There is an approximate 2% increase in price for this option. Although the routes may be slightly longer for the second run, it does cut down on the overall time of the system. All 12 buses, all newly created, are scheduled with at least 94% capacity. The district’s current ridership numbers suggest that only 81.5% of Shaw students and 61.4% of Elmwood students assigned to their bus routes utilize the system, therefore it is highly unlikely that buses would be anywhere close to maximum capacity. The final scenario, known as the Same option allows Shaw and the high school to start at the same, or similar times. This would require the buses to be shared between the two schools or to purchase an additional ten full, and one mini bus for the system. The same bus option is similar to Reduce, but geographically and politically would see more difficulties. The addition of extra buses would require an approximate 80% increase in the current everyday transportation budget. Brief Conclusions The Swap, Push, and Reduce are all feasible options for the District to pursue. Contrarily, Same requires a significant increase in the budget that may be more useful allocated elsewhere. Swap provides a way to give junior/high school students additional time in the morning, without jeopardizing the time students from Elmwood (grades preK-3) would get home. It does however, require students attending Shaw (grades 4-6) to be awake earlier. This solution may also demand additional resources for aftercare, and for transporting high school students to the Shaw fields after school. Push provides a way to keep everything the same, but allows a later start time for the high school. The 50-minute push option is not recommended mainly due to the very late start of Elmwood, the late afternoon drop off of Elmwood students, and the impact on afterschool practices and games. Reduce provides a more adventurous option. Bus routes would be changed, operation of buses would change, and costs would slightly increase. However, this is not completely revolutionary to the busing world, as Northbridge and Auburn currently do this for their elementary schools. Tantasqua Regional similarly utilizes this method for their middle and high schools. This option allows for start times that are no more than a 5-10-minute difference between Shaw and Elmwood. The average time for each route is between 27 and 29 minutes, which is comparable to the current route times for Elmwood individually. The greatest amount of time it would take a bus from the high school to its first stop is nine minutes. A general approximation is for Shaw to begin 35-40 minutes after the high school and Elmwood to begin around 45-50 minutes after the high school. Shaw currently starts 30 minutes after the high school. and Elmwood currently starts 1 hour and 13 minutes after the high school. v Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... iii Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................

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