Kenton City Schools District Holds Transportation Meeting

The Kenton City Schools District held its transportation study and recommendations meeting last night, with a representative from the Ohio School Boards Association.

Doug Palmer, the Transportation Consultant for the OSBA, presented those in attendance with a detailed report of his recommendations concerning proposed changes to the Kenton City Schools busing systems.

The OSBA recommended implementing “Plan C”, which is a two-tier system for the entire district. This system would allow for targeted stops, meaning staggered start times between the elementary school and middle/high schools. This would reduce the student ride times, making shorter rides for country students along with city students. This plan would make the bus routes more efficient, from pre-trip to completion. Allowing for changes to the busing systems would also save the district an estimated $71,000 annually.

The plan states three positives and one negative to intangible impacts of changing the system. The following are possible positive outcomes of the changes, students wait time at school is shortened, students ride with similar aged grades and, reduced number of buses required for routes. A possible negative outcome of the change would be the need to adjust bell schedules.

The documents provided were centered around four goals determined by OSBA. These goals were to analyze the current routing to assess ridership and routing times, eliminate extended time of student supervision before and after school, provide routing options that increase efficiency and bus safety and, assess the cost for each routing option.   

Superintendent Jennifer Penczarski informed guests that Kenton Elementary School already runs on a “two-tier” system. With the inclusion of a “B” route, students in the elementary school do not leave at the same time. This results in the loss of instructional time for students. Meaning the district needs to explore options to “maximize the school day to bring needed instructional time back to students.”

However, no changes have been made to any of the busing policies currently in place within the district. Superintendent Penczarski, said that she has no plans of changing the system for the 2019-2020 school year. Instead, the district is weighing all options to make the busing system as efficient and effective as possible.