From: Subject: Date: To:

"Olson, Jessica" <jessica.olson@everettsd.org> FW: School time changes April 12, 2013 11:14:44 AM PDT <jessicaeverettschoolboard@gmail.com>

------------------------------------------From: Gunn, Mike Sent: Friday, April 12, 2013 11:14:42 AM To: Olson, Jessica Cc: Cohn, Gary; Mahan, Kathy; Vanderwilt, Debbie Subject: RE: School time changes Auto forwarded by a Rule Jessica, School start and dismissal times have been established with cost-effective and on-time school bus operations in mind. Elementary, middle and high school schedules are "staggered" so one school bus can make two or more routes in the morning and again in the evening. The buses picking up students for the earliest-starting schools turn right around to ferry another group to a later-starting school. The reverse happens in the afternoon when buses drop off early-release schools and return to later-release schools for another group of students. District transportation staff monitor and adjust bus operations on a daily basis using data collected from a variety of sources. These sources range from oral comments received from parents and school staff via telephone, to hand-written daily reports from drivers (driver logs), to detailed monthly reports from Durham transportation showing daily bus mileage, costs, and hours of service. In addition, GPS units are installed on Durham's buses which provide extensive, detailed real-time data on school bus travel throughout the district. Our staff use this data and their professional judgment to make regular adjustments to transportation operations throughout the school year. As congestion and traffic increase in our parking lots and streets, it is becoming more difficult to routinely run our student transportation system on time. The afternoon bus routes originating at Jackson HS, Cascade HS and Evergreen MS are particularly challenging, and delays on these routes often result in delays at subsequent schools on later bus routes. So far this year we have added three new bus routes and expanded four partial bus routes at Cascade HS and Jackson HS to enable our buses to run on a more predictable schedule, at a combined cost increase of over $160,000. Each of these new bus routes cost between $254 and $273 per day, and each of these partial routes cost between $30 and $43 extra per day, and run on a 180 day school year. We are considering four possible options to allow our buses to run on a more predictable schedule next year, and are currently undertaking a community survey to assess support for the various options. We expect the routes added this year and their additional costs could be eliminated next year if more turnaround time were provided by increasing the minutes between school start and dismissal times. This survey will be conducted through 8 a.m. Tuesday, April 16, and can be accessed by this link https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KDQ8X26. Sincerely, Mike Gunn

Executive Director, Facilities & Operations

-----Original Message----From: Cohn, Gary Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2013 10:07 AM To: Olson, Jessica Cc: Russell, Jeff; Gunn, Mike; Debolt, Terrie Subject: RE: School time changes Jessica, I'm providing your director inquiry to Mike Gunn for analysis and response. I expect that Mike will be able to send you a reply by the conclusion of the business day on Friday of this week. He will let you know if, for some reason, he is unable to conclude his response by that time. Dr. Gary Cohn Superintendent

-----Original Message----From: Olson, Jessica Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2013 2:24 PM To: Cohn, Gary Cc: jessicaeverettschoolboard@gmail.com Subject: School time changes Gary -Hey I'm getting a lot of questions about this school start and end time change/survey business. People are asking me about which schools are experiencing the delays, what bus routes, which areas of town/streets are congested, how many students involved, etc. They are also asking me how the District is quantifying the $162k saved by making the changes as stated in the April 2 Herald article. In other words, people are asking about the data sources, if any, that the District is relying upon in seeking to make these changes. They are saying they want to see this information for themselves. With that in mind, I'd appreciate it if you, or a staff member that you'll delegate, will please give to me a brief explanation of the "proof" the district is utilizing that documents: 1) that these student transportation delays are indeed occurring and to what effect (which schools, routes, how many student affected at each school, route, etc. -- and any other info you deem pertinent); 2) that effecting changes to school start and end times will indeed save the District in the neighborhood of $162k

In addition, I'm almost certain that once I provide a response to these folks, and repeat the info you'll be giving me, the next step for them is likely going to be that they will want to see this documentation for themselves. In this probably and likely event, if you could give any names or titles of documents, surveys, observations, etc., that would be very helpful. Thank you in advance for your assistance and cooperation, Gary. Sincerely, Jessica Sent from my iPhone