What you need to know
Kirby Campbell, GISD's executive director of support services, said during a March 4 board workshop that district staff and administrators are working to identify how to best serve the district's goal of reducing expenditures while maintaining the level of service students and their families have come to expect.
One of the ways the district might reduce some operating costs, Campbell said, would be to update its bell schedule.
Currently, both middle and high schools start and release at the same time. With the district projected to grow by about 4%—close to 500 students—in the upcoming school year, Campbell said the district is proposing a change to its bell schedule that would see start and end times for middle and high schools staggered, to give its existing bus fleet more time to transport a greater number of students without requiring more resources.
Doing so could save the district around $150,000 per year, he said.
What they're saying
Campbell said the district's current bell schedule is also difficult to maintain with increases in traffic, as well as new traffic signals that have lengthened the time needed to complete bus routes.
"This is unsustainable for the future," he said of the current synchronized bell schedule. "Other districts that have grown like us in the past have adjusted their bell schedules."
The district's bus schedule was last updated in 2017, he said.
The details
District documents show the best utilization of GISD's current bus fleet would occur with a 15-to-20-minute time difference between middle and high school bell schedules, although staff have not settled on which should start first.
The proposed bell schedules are as follows:
Option 1
- High school: 8:40 a.m.-4 p.m.
- Middle school: 9 a.m.-4:20 p.m.
- Elementary school: 7:40 a.m.-3 p.m.
- High school: 9 a.m.-4:20 p.m.
- Middle school: 8:40 a.m.-4 p.m.
- Elementary school: 7:40 p.m.-3 p.m.
