Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 6/8/2023
WILBRAHAM — Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District managed to maintain a two-tier bus schedule while also negotiating with Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative, the company that provides the buses, to consolidate routes. This averted a change to a three-tier bus schedule, which was unpopular with parents.
The three-tier system would have forced start times and end times at Mile Tree Elementary and Green Meadows School to shift later in the day.
“We have heard the several families and staff members who have come forward to explain the hardships the proposed new schedule for Mile Tree and Green Meadows would cause,” Superintendent John Provost said in a letter sent to families on June 2.
The potential change in busing was proposed as a method of using five fewer buses and therefore, paying for five fewer bus drivers. Instead, the district worked with the collaborative to consolidate bus routes. Provost said driver shortages this year forced the district to consolidate routes at times, which it was able to do without overcrowding. Therefore, he does not expect overcrowding to be an issue next year.
Through consolidation, Provost explained, the district will save $160,000. Because $200,000 in transportation cost savings was included in the fiscal year 2024 budget, Assistant Superintendent for Finance, Operations and Human Resources Aaron Osborne asked the School Committee to approve the use of $40,000 from the School Choice account. School Choice is a program in which out-of-district students enter a lottery to attend the district of their choice. The student’s home district pays $5,000 per student to the choice district.
Committee member Patrick Kiernan asked if the $40,000 can be found in another area of the budget rather than from School Choice dollars. He floated the idea of it coming from sport and parking fees, but School Committee member Bill Bontempi told him those are tied to revolving funds. Osborne said the district may be able to find the $40,000 of funding in other areas.
Committee member Sean Kennedy asked why the third tier was not used for high school students, considering that studies have indicated later start times are better for adolescents.
Provost said that his previous district, Northampton Public Schools, implemented later start times for high school, but that it was the result of 20 years of discussions. He said later high school start times can be difficult for families in which older siblings babysit younger ones and for students who play athletics.
Michael Tirabassi, who was recently elected to the School Committee and was invited to sit with the members, said parents had reached out to him because their children were on the bus for long periods. He asked if consolidated bus routes would lengthen or shorten their commute. Osborne said that when roots can be planned at the beginning of the year, they are more efficient. The collaborative will also be installing GPS units in buses, reducing the likelihood that new drivers will get lost or turned around.
“We are, geographically, a large district,” Bontempi said, adding that students living on the Connecticut state line will take time to get to schools in Wilbraham, such as Minnechaug Regional High School.
School Committee member Sherrill Caruana asked if there were still challenges around driver turnover. Osborne told her that people are now using their sick time when they are unwell and that surgeries that were postponed during the around the virus pandemic are being scheduled now.
Kennedy asked about joint bus stops, a topic raised at a previous meeting. Provost said he would like a representative from the collaborative to speak at a school committee meeting about the complications of joint stops.
Bontempi said he had heard nothing but concerns and negative comments about the three-tier proposal. A resident at the meeting spoke against the idea and said different start times for children in different schools would be a major complication for some families.
The conversation was tabled so further funding sources could be considered, and a vote was planned for the HWRSD meeting on June 15.
Suspension andvocational acceptance
The school district also discussed ways in which suspension rates may impact the acceptance of students into vocational programming, such as LPVEC’s career technical school.
Provost said some vocational schools can only take so many of their applicants and screen them using a rubric that considers behavior, attendance and grades. The problem with this method he said is that historically disadvantaged students are likewise disadvantaged in the application process.
“I don’t see the same kind of exclusion” at CTEC, Provost said, adding that that was likely because there are not as many applicants to the program as there are at many other vocational schools. He also noted 41% of students at CTEC are students with disabilities, further lessening the likelihood that the competitiveness of the school is leading to disadvantaged students not being placed there. He noted that sophomores must declare a shop before classes begin, and some shops may be more competitive than others.
Part of the discussion was a comparison of suspension rates from before and after eighth graders were incorporated into high schools. Provost said that he had spoken with superintendents in two districts which had made that change in recent years. One superintendent told him that the move had improved behavior among eighth graders as they wanted to emulate the behavior of the older students. Both districts reported much lower suspension rates, with one at half of HWRSD’s suspensions and the other at one-third of the district’s rate.
“We’re suspending at much higher rates and that disadvantages our kids,” because behavior is a factor in admission to vocational schools, Kiernan said. He recommended expunging nonviolent suspensions from records before the state law was changed in November 2022.
Bontempi saw another problem, however. He said there were “insufficient spaces” for vocational students, and so the state should fund vocational programs.
“There’s not enough money to go around,” between regional schools, municipal schools and charter schools, much less vocational schools, committee member Maura Ryan said.