Interim Superintendent of Schools Dr Lorrie Rodrigue announced in an e-mail to parents on October 24 that Reed Intermediate School will start releasing five minutes earlier, at 3:32 pm, starting October 30.

Two bus routes have also been split and will begin going directly to Head O' Meadow Elementary School or Reed on October 27, and parents of children on the buses in question have been notified, also by e-mail.

Reed currently releases at 3:37 pm. Dr Rodrigue said in the e-mail that she worked with the school's leadership team to review the school schedule.

"As a result," the e-mail reads, "we were able to capture five minutes (four minutes from morning and afternoon homerooms, as well as an extra minute from passing that now makes all passing times equitable). This will not impact any instructional time in the schedule. The offset of RIS dismissal time will result in a shorter wait time at the elementary level in the afternoon and students departing earlier for home. RIS will now dismiss at 3:32 pm beginning Monday, October 30."

At the Board of Education's meeting on October 17, Dr Rodrigue shared an "immediate remedy" that would have Reed dismiss five minutes earlier to alleviate elementary student wait times this year. Dr Rodrigue also proposed utilizing two buses in Newtown's fleet - which presently transport EdAdvance and St Rose of Lima School students - for the public school routes to transport some students directly to school. At the meeting, Dr Rodrigue also presented proposals from a transportation task force that were discussed at the meeting as options for the 2018-19 school year to address concerns with transportation as a result of the reconfigured system and school start time changes this school year.

The school board did not make a motion at the October 17 meeting to reject or support Dr Rodrigue's immediate remedy, which Board of Education Chair Keith Alexander explained left Dr Rodrigue "free to implement" the five-minute change to Reed's day and begin the use of the two buses from St Rose and EdAdvance.

In her e-mail, Dr Rodrigue said, "As you know, we have continued to work on finding resolutions for remaining transportation issues related to the new school start time. A task force identified some key issues: buses late to RIS, wait time at elementary school for shuttles, and ride time. While we worked on decreasing ride times (splitting routes and tweaking bus stop times), we still had a few buses arriving to RIS just minutes prior to 9:05 am. Some of this is related to traffic and the challenge of buses getting from HOM. The [afternoon] dismissal at the elementary schools includes additional wait time for the shuttles to arrive.

"The majority of these challenges have been remedied. However, in order to fix remaining concerns, we split two morning bus routes and will be redirecting buses to go either directly to [Head O' Meadow] or directly to RIS. Another bus route has been reworked in order to expedite the run," the e-mail reads.

Dr Rodrigue also shared in the e-mail that none of the changes "were made in haste or without a great deal of conversation," and she is confident the changes will make a difference.

"In the meantime, we will continue to work with staff, leaders, BOE, and the community to alleviate concerns in the future by finding a more permanent solution," she wrote.

Dr Rodrigue also said on October 25 that there were no "easy fixes."

"We have worked from day one to resolve multiple issues, but have now come to a place where we are looking at a few remaining issue that I think we can resolve this year," she said.

The district, she said, will continue to look for a permanent solution, "and some other ideas that might make this system work for everyone."

She has heard from some parents that the reconfigured system is working for their children, but, Dr Rodrigue reiterated, "we need to make it a positive experience for everyone.

"I know we can get it done as a community," she added.