Pittsfield Schools Finalizing Bus Routes for Fall
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| New bus routes this fall will reflect the closure of Morningside School. |
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The district currently has enough bus drivers for the upcoming school year, and families will know their child's transportation schedule in mid-August.
With about five weeks left of summer vacation, Superintendent Latifah Phillips updated the School Committee on transportation for the 2026-2027 year with middle school restructuring and the closure of Morningside Community School.
Busing is a question that has continuously been raised as the Pittsfield Public Schools approach an academic year with a couple of big changes.
"The reason that the bus stops and times aren't shared until very close to the school year is that routes change based on every student that moves into the district and requires a bus, and so it's important for us to wait as late as possible to ensure that families are getting the most accurate timetable," Phillips explained during a meeting held at Reid Middle School on Thursday.
"We are also continuing to explore after-school transportation for the four schools receiving Morningside, and a survey was given to students who attend the Summer Morningside 21st Century Program to assess transportation needs."
That survey found that transportation does not appear to be a big impediment to students participating in the after-school program, but funding is set aside to ensure students are able to access the same services as they were the previous year.
The district is still planning to offer after-school programming for Morningside transfer students, and is working with the four receiving elementary schools (Allendale, Egremont, Williams, Capeless) to plan a practice bus ride.
Phillips explained that, for someone who has never ridden a bus before, and especially a school bus, they want to ensure that students are poised for success and understand the rules and expectations before the first ride. Students will be able to get on the bus, ride the route, arrive at school, have a quick break, maybe play on the playground and have a popsicle, then return home on the bus.
"So that's one of the ways that we're hoping to prepare students for that first ride, given that most of our Morningside students were not bus riders or eligible for buses this past school year," Phillips said.
The route map is projected to be completed on Aug. 15, a couple of weeks before school begins, and mailed to families. Bus drivers will bid on routes on Aug. 25 and 26, and when the routes are assigned, drivers will take a dry run.
One impact of having fuller buses is that there will be less ticket transportation available, and that communication is coming out even though it has always been reported that ticket transportation is not guaranteed, Phillips said.
"It's always dependent on available seats on any given year. A bus stop is determined by existing bus stops for students," she said.
"That's a message that has been ongoing for years now. But because we know that there may be less available seats on the bus for non-eligible riders. We want to make sure that we at least are sharing this information proactively with families."
It was clarified that PPS has enough drivers to start, and is working on training additional ones because a couple of drivers are on the verge of retiring.
"That's why everything we're doing is very specific to maintain the drivers that we have, so that when one retires, we have another replacement," Director of Bus Operations Colleen O'Brien explained.
"But we're also making sure that the routes stay within that realm, so that we're not overextending what we do have."
It is not yet determined how long the bus rides will be, but start and end times for school have been released. The instruction day for elementary schools runs from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., middle schools go from 8:05 a.m. to 2:45 p.m., and high schools begin at 7:20 a.m. and end at 2 p.m.
Phillips said they will continue to study bus routes and schedules and likely make proposals as part of next year's budgeting process, as well as share findings from the middle school restructuring.
To date, PPS has 298 students enrolled for kindergarten and ended the school year with about 338 kindergarten students.
"This is a strong number. This is a positive number for us because we tend to continue to have students enrolling well into the beginning of the school year," she said.
Allendale, Egremont, Williams, and Capeless are being enrolled at the anticipated building capacity, and Crosby Elementary School and Conte Community School continue to be underutilized. The two schools are included in plans for a combined new build on Crosby's property, for which Pittsfield is completing a feasibility study.
To date, 65 intradistrict transfers and a few school choice students have been approved, though not all were able to be granted. Phillips reported that sibling transfers were approved, and most Morningside transfers were placed.
Fewer than 10 intradistrict transfers were denied.
Tags: Pittsfield Public Schools, school bus routes,
