MAHANOY CITY - A proposed plan to eliminate school bus transportation within Mahanoy City for the 2012-13 school year was tabled at Thursday's school board meeting.
The proposal was mentioned during the March school board meeting. School districts are mandated to transport students who live outside of a 1 1/2-mile radius of the school, which puts the whole borough within that non-mandated area. If transportation is eliminated in the borough, buses will be available for another proposed plan to have all students begin the school day at the same time, which would require those buses to run to pick up all the students.
Where bus transportation will be available, the school district plans to reduce the number of stops. All the transportation changes are designed to save money.
In her monthly report, district Superintendent Joie Green had planned to ask for two motions: the first to eliminate all bus stops in Mahanoy City effective July 1, and the second to approve new starting and ending times for students in kindergarten through 12th grade, with doors opening at 7:15 a.m. for breakfast, the regular school day to run for all students from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and remediation provided from 2:30 to 3 p.m.
After the meeting, Green said tabling the two motions will provide time for the school board and administration to review the proposals.
"We want to discuss more when we have our budget meeting next Thursday," Green said. "The board wants to talk about the different scenarios with it. They're concerned about safety with the early times that the little kids are coming into school."
Green said the change in the school day schedule cannot take place if the borough bus transportation is not eliminated. Another consideration the board is looking at is having older students riding the same buses as the younger students if the start time is the same for all grades.
"We have talked about this. Some parents have suggested that there should be an aide on the bus," Green said. "There are different scenarios that we really didn't talk about in the implementation of the plan. The board wants to do more thinking on this."
Safety is also being studied for those students who live in the borough and would walk to school.
"We had a feasibility study where two engineers came in. They looked at the town and the walking distances to make sure it was safe for the kids to walk down to the school and out in front of the school," Green said. "They came back with some ideas for us and we want to share them with the board next Thursday. That's why the board didn't want to make a decision right now until they have all the facts."
Green added, "If the board doesn't vote to eliminate the town buses, then we can't move to the same beginning and ending time because we don't have enough buses."
The Budget and Finance Committee will hold a budget workshop at 4 p.m. May 3 in the Large Group Instruction Room in the high school.