New school times in Lee County may ease bus driver shortage

Reporter: Zoe Warner
Published: Updated:

The Lee County School Board proposed a plan to address its bus driver shortage by adjusting school start and end times.

If approved, the new schedule would begin in August, when the new school year begins.

The proposal would reduce the current bus system from four tiers to three, allowing bus drivers more time between routes.

The first tier would include 471 bus routes, the second tier 404 routes and the third tier 300 routes.

This change would affect school start and end times throughout the district. School start times could be as early as 7:00 a.m., with end times as late as 4:15 p.m.

The district estimated this plan would reduce the need for bus drivers by nearly 60.

“The end goal is really to not only move towards those three tiers of transportation, to increase efficiency, to increase safety; but we’re really going to see an opportunity to make the most of the instructional time that we have with our students when they’re there on time, when our teachers are amazing. Have them for those hours; we can really do a lot of good work with them,” said a district representative.

The final vote on this proposal is scheduled for next week.

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