Berkshire County — Members of the Eight Town Planning Board reviewed a long-in-the-works transportation study during its virtual meeting on Wednesday, November 30.
The board, which was formed in early 2020, has been researching the possibility of merging the Berkshire Hills Regional School District and the Southern Berkshire Regional School District.
The 110-page transportation study was compiled by Alliance Education Associates of Longmeadow, Mass. The report, which includes computer-generated routes and schedules, outlines five potential scenarios for school bus transportation and operations if the districts were to merge. According to the company, the merger of the two school districts would “create an educational service area of approximately 242.5 square miles and would serve a total of approximately 1,800 students.”
The first scenario developed would be the merged school districts using their current bus routes and schedules, with the longest ride time for students recorded at 49 minutes in the morning, and 58 minutes in the afternoon, both for Mt. Everett Regional School and Undermountain Elementary School students.
The second potential scenario would include six dedicated buses for students from ninth to 12th grade to transport them to a merged high school in Great Barrington. There would also be 13 buses transporting students who are currently enrolled in the Southern Berkshire Regional School District to schools that serve pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade students. The longest potential ride time estimated is for Mt. Everett Regional School and Undermountain Elementary School students at around 41 minutes for both morning and afternoon routes.
The third potential scenario is similar to the second scenario but would have students from both school districts transported to the schools closest in proximity to their residence. It would reassign 15 Berkshire Hills Regional School District students and 33 Southern Berkshire Regional School District students to other schools, and the longest ride time would be for Mt. Everett Regional School and Undermountain Elementary School students at around 60 minutes.
The fourth and fifth scenarios, marked as “4A” and “4B” in the report, would include all students from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade attending their current schools, and ninth to 12th grades attending the merged Great Barrington high school. The two scenarios would include a revised and common school bell schedule for all the schools in the merged district, along with a single fleet of transportation vehicles “which allows for a greater utilization of vehicles across the region,” and would limit student route time to less than 45 minutes.
Both scenarios would create a two-tier transportation system for Southern Berkshire Regional School District students, with dedicated buses for high school students and students attending the other schools. The scenarios would require three additional vehicles, along with greater use for vans for students in the outlying areas, with a cost increase of $54,864 to the district, and other fees potentially reimbursed by state aid. The fifth scenario, however, would have buses no longer strictly dedicated to each school district and would have 48 students reassigned from their current school to the school that is geographically closer to their residence.
During a meeting of the Operations Subcommittee on Nov. 30, Richard LaBrie, Senior Associate from Alliance Education Associates, told committee members that the net financial impact to the merged school district would be minimum. “Our bottom line is that when you look at the merger of the two school districts, transportation should not even be a factor,” LaBrie said. “The caveat to all of this is that we never recommend that you change the bell schedules for the sake of transportation. Those are educational decisions that should be made for educational value learning for students. Transportation, quite frankly, is a support service for education. But having said that, we found that the transportation impact on students, as well as the net financial impact [to the district], should be minimal.”
Click here to read the full report.
