Start Times Transportation Study Not Ready For Tuesday Meeting

ANDOVER, MA — School Committee Chair Joel Blumstein announced Monday evening that the transportation study would not be available for discussion at Tuesday's school committee meeting, as previously planned. The study, which is expected to provide options for route rearrangements and other changes that might allow the district to change start times without the extreme options initially presented, had been on the Nov. 5 meeting agenda for weeks. The study is being conducted by Edulog, a bus routing and planning software company.

"At tomorrow’s meeting, there will be an update on the status of the study and some discussion of next steps, but the report, including recommendations for viable scenarios, will not be presented tomorrow evening as originally anticipated," Blumstein said in an email. "The Committee and Start Time Working Group will take more time to consider options and relevant information, including the Edulog report, and we will continue to have the School Start Times initiative on the agenda for future meetings."

The meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the School Committee conference room on the 2nd floor of the School Administration Building, 36 Bartlet St.

At recent meetings, elementary school parents have asked the committee to delay its decision on start times and to avoid making the drastic changes proposed in the two proposed no-cost start time arrangements. In those options, some elementary school students would be picked up as early as 6:33 a.m., in the "flip" scenario, or dropped off as late as 4:55, in the "shift scenario." The committee had not given itself a formal deadline for any decision, but members had said they hoped to make a decision at the second November meeting, Nov. 21.

"I'm very optimistic that nobody's going to get picked up at 6:30 or dropped off at 5," said Blumstein at the committee's Oct. 24 meeting. "I'm very hopeful that [with] the information that comes out of the [transportation study] ... we can do much better."

Christopher Huffaker: 412-265-8353 or chris.huffaker@patch.com.