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8 Eanes Elementary School students will be looking at some changes when they head back to school Monday. Classes will start a little earlier this year.
The first bell will ring at 7:35 a.m., and the tardy bell will ring at 7:40 a.m., starting the school day 10 minutes earlier for Eanes Elementary School students. The school day will end at 2:35 p.m., with all buses pulling out by 2:40 pm.
While the change will help the district reduce transportation expenses by improving efficiency, it was prompted by a need to reduce the time buses spend on the road servicing first-tier transportation elementary schools Eanes, Barton Creek, Cedar Creek and Bridge Point. Currently 18 buses pick up students for those schools each weekday morning. After delivering students to their campuses, the buses travel on to second-tier pick-up schools Forest Trail Elementary and Hill Country and West Ridge middle schools. Eventually, those same buses get Westlake High School students to their morning classes.
“Because of the increased traffic in the area and the increasing number of kids wanting to ride the bus, we just didn’t have time to get out to the second group of schools without running late,” said Timothy Wysong, transportation director for the Eanes school district. “We had a choice – start earlier on one of the first-tier schools or start later at the other second-tier campuses, pushing their release time later. That complicates after-school programs.”
Wysong said the buses that service EES had the furthest to travel to pick up their secondary routes, moving on after the drop off of the EES students to FTES, HCMS, WRMS and on to the high school.
Wysong said the change in EES start time and the subsequent morning bus schedule changes could save the district up to $80,000 in fuel costs through better efficiency.
“But our real focus and challenge is minimizing the time kids spend on the bus and getting them where they are going as safely as possible,” Wysong said.
In addition to the new EES start time, there will also be some new faces on campus.
“Our enrollment has continued to increase over the summer; we have had to open additional first-, second-, third- and fifth-grade (classes),” said EES Principal Cindy Acosta.
New first-grade teachers include Jennie George, Shannon Lojo, Lauren Murphy and Nicole Porter-David. The new second grade teacher will be Lindsay Tomasik. The new third-grade teacher will be Trin Pham-Phi; the new fourth-grade teacher will be Meagan Didlake; and the new fifth-grade teacher will be KiMi Fields.
EES is open for student drop off each school morning at 7:20 a.m.
Studies show earlier start times for students decreases student performance. Children who are more tired during the day learn less because they are sleep deprived.
Children should not be placed on buses at 6:30 in the morning. If there is too much traffic on Bee Caves then move some boundary lines around. The Board needs to wake up and make changes that have the least impact on our students. If traffic is a problem look at where the kids are coming from and what they are passing along the way. Is there a closer school to some neighborhoods??
Make the tough decisions but stop making our children suffer for your inability to make tough choices.
All should agree that sleep deprivation and long bus rides decreases student performance and that elementary schools close to home contribute to academic achievement and parental involvement. So, let’s pass Proposition 2!
How does passing Proposition 2 effect the start time of Eanes Elementary?
Proposition 2 includes a major renovation of Eanes Elementary. This renovation will address the traffic patterns around the school, easing congestion and allowing for more accessible drop off and pick up for both buses and cars. Also, by addressing the geographical imbalance of elementary schools in the district, buses would be able to run more efficiently. The sharing of buses by elementary schools could be more easily organized.
To “Confused:” By agreeing with “I am Opposed to the Start Time,” and urging the passage of Proposition 2, my point is that all young children in our district should be spared excessively early wake up times and lengthy bus commutes. Surely you would agree with that concept.
@ Common Ground: You must be referring to the current location of Valley View.
Bus pick-up times for Valley View students were not any earlier than pick-up times for other EISD elementary schools last year. In fact, the earliest publicized pick-up last year was a 6:44 a.m. route for Bridge Point. That same route had a final afternoon drop-off time of 3:51 p.m.(Bridge Point started at 7:45 a.m. and ended at 2:45 p.m.)
This year, I believe that the earliest bus pick-up time is 6:30 a.m. for an Eanes Elementary bus route. That is 1 hour and 5 minutes before the start of school.
Valley View doesn’t have, and hasn’t had, an exclusive on long bus routes. Our district’s failure to provide adequate transportation options for our students has nothing to do with Proposition 2 and everything to do with priorities.
Vote against Proposition 2 and ask the Board to come back with a proposal to fix EE with existing facilities. The current growth is east of 360- not west. Please review the numbers for the last three years and you will see- the growth is not at VV. The growth is at EE, BP and CC.
Voters need to understand that plans for a new elementary on the west side include adding significant numbers of transfer students from other districts, and turning the existing elementary into a much larger, more expensive central administrative office. If you believe that EISD tax debt should be extended to fund facilities for students outside our boundaries and more administrative functions, you should vote for Prop 2. If you believe that EISD tax debt should be used only to fund absolute needs for education of EISD children, you should not.