BUCKLAND — The Two Districts, Eight Towns (2D8T) Steering Committee is looking at models for busing students in the Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont regional school districts in the event that the single-campus proposal moves forward.
Modeling of a single-tier run of busing all of the two districts’ students, regardless of grade level, indicated that the majority of pupils would have ride times of less than 30 minutes. However, on Thursday, members of the 2D8T Steering Committee requested that consultant Berkshire Educational Resources K-12 (BERK12) model what ride times would look like if a two-tier bus run was implemented, putting elementary school students and middle/high school students on separate buses.
Committee members said having the data would be helpful, even if it does not show much difference from the model of a single-tier run, so the public will have all the information needed when the time comes to vote on the proposed single-campus district.
“I think some people will be inclined to reject a single-tier and so we may want to be prepared for what a two-tier actually would look like,” said Kenneth Bertsch, chair of the Hawlemont School Committee.
BERK12 had looked at the bus routes and ridership data for the existing bus runs, with elementary students being brought to their various schools and middle and high school students being brought to Mohawk Trail Regional School in Buckland. BERK12 modeled what ride times would be for all students if they were to be brought to Mohawk Trail Regional School, rather than their local elementary school.
Currently, there are 535 bus riders across the two districts, with an average ride time of 29.1 minutes. The majority of students (55.5%) have ride times of less than 30 minutes, 40.2% of students have a ride between 30 minutes and an hour, and 4.3% of students have a ride time of more than an hour.
The report broke down school-by-school ride times, and found that none of the elementary schools have bus ride times of more than an hour, except for students that choice into Rowe Elementary School. At the middle and high school, 7.5%, or 23 students, have rides longer than an hour.
A model of all students traveling to Mohawk Trail Regional School showed that the average student ride time would be 28.2 minutes. The majority of students (56.2%) would still have ride times of less than 30 minutes, 37.3% would have ride times of 30 minutes to an hour, and 6.5% of students would have ride times longer than an hour.
The report further broke down ride times by grade level and said that of current elementary students, only 10 would have ride times longer than an hour. The average ride time for elementary students would be 25.6 minutes.
BERK12 Project Manager Jake Eberstein said modeling a two-tier run to the Mohawk Trail Regional School site would likely only produce “light differences” from the single-tier modeling, but at the committee’s request, the team will work on producing a model.
The report noted that the model shows a “snapshot in time,” and routes and ride times can vary from year to year depending on where students live.
The complete transportation modeling can be found at 2districts8towns.org.