The Scarborough Board of Education approved reinstituting a school bus policy that would create centralized bus stops starting in the fall, at its meeting on May 5.
According to Scott Macomber, Scarborough school district transportation director, the purpose of the policy, which was once included in the district’s policy manual but removed, is to expedite the time the district takes to transport children to school.
Today, for the most part, the bus stops at individual homes and pick-ups one or maybe two students. All totaled Scarborough busses make approximately 2000 to 3000 stops per day.
The new policy will allow the district to organize central bus stops for groups of students. The bus stop will be located so that the maximum amount of distance from a bus stop is a half-mile for high school and middle school students and a quarter-mile for students in first to fifth grade. Kindergarten students will continue to receive door-to-door bus service.
The change could save the district money by reducing the amount of time per bus route, saving gas and maybe even allowing the district to consolidate the routes and operate fewer buses every day, Macomber said.
The decisions of which bus stops are consolidated and where will be based on several factors, including the type of road students would have to walk on to get to the bus stop.
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