Bus fiasco causes last-minute scheduling changes for most Rockford elementary schools

Rockford Public Schools announced a last-minute schedule change last week that will force most of its elementary schools to start their school days 20 minutes earlier than planned.

Rockford School Superintendent Ehren Jarrett said the change was necessary to preserve a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity to extend the school day by 35 minutes after First Student, a Cincinnati, Ohio-based bus company, failed to deliver 65 bus drivers for the 2023-24 school year per a $5.6 million, one-year contract.

"We feel awful this happened and had there been any way to avoid this, or give more notice, we would have," Jarrett said during a news conference Friday. "We are hoping folks will see that in a terrible situation, we did what we thought was the greater good."

The school district announced the changes Aug. 24. The first day of school is Aug. 31.

The schedule will stay as it is for the entire school year, Jarrett said.

The district is negotiating a settlement with First Student on the contract.

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Board was urged to vote no

Sara Dorner, a representative with AFSCME Council 31 Local 1275 representing the district's bus drivers, said the previous school board agreed to hire First Student based on the false premise that without them, the extended school day wouldn't be possible.

"This was the last action taken in April by the outgoing school board, and they really rammed it through," Dorner said. "We went to that meeting, and we asked them not to vote for this contract. We believed at the time that if they voted for enough for our bus drivers, we could hire enough drivers."

With a new school board seated, the union has since negotiated an extension of its labor agreement with the district. It includes starting pay of $19 an hour, a $4,000 signing bonus, health insurance, paid holidays and other benefits.

"We told RPS, look you are having trouble hiring school bus drivers, why do you think First Student would be able to hire drivers on a one-year contract?" Dorner said. "Nobody is going to want to come and work as a driver on a one-year deal."

First Student promised to provide 65 bus drivers for the 2023-24 school year despite a national bus driver shortage.

Jarrett said the district got the bad news on Monday. First Student had only been able to hire 12 of the promised drivers, leaving the district 53 drivers short.

'This is ridiculous'

Some parents took to social media last week to let the district know they did not appreciate the last-minute notification or the decision to have most elementary schools start at 7:15 a.m. instead of 7:35 a.m.

"I was thinking of putting my daughter in dance or gymnastics, but at this point, she's going to be extremely exhausted!" one parent said on Facebook. "It just doesn't make sense!"

"As it is, it’s an extra long day and now they have to get up even earlier," another parent agreed. "This is ridiculous."

"This is insane," another parent said. "We wanted to try public school after coming from private. And I’m really considering re-enrolling in private school."

The earliest bus routes won't be any earlier, but families who drive students to school or with students who walk to school could have to adjust their morning routines.

It also may be a challenge for school staff and teachers who have children of their own who they have to get to school before getting to work.

"How annoying," one parent shared on Facebook. "I'm sure teachers with kids of their own will love this too."

Extra time for student literacy

Jarrett said that the district ultimately decided the change would be worth the additional time that can be devoted to improving student literacy.

"We are really focused on third-grade reading and insuring our students are making the transition from learning to read to reading to learn at that third-grade level," Jarrett said. "When we talk about extending an elementary day 35 minutes, that allows us to pour additional literacy intervention time into student schedules."

The extended elementary school day — 7:15 a.m. to 2:25 p.m. — is only for the 2023-2024 school year. The district is using about $10 million in COVID relief funds to pay teachers and staff for working more.

The reason the change isn't happening at all elementary schools is because teachers had to vote to accept the extended day. Teachers at Gregory, Conklin, Lewis Lemon, Montessori and Spring Creek elementary schools voted against the longer day. The school day at those schools remains about 6 1/2 hours long.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Rockford schools: Schedule change makes most of 'terrible' situation