Good Evening:
 
As many of you have made us aware, we have a number of issues with respect to some bus routes and achieving the timing schedules as printed with each route. All of these issues are as concerning to us as they are to you.
 
I wish to assure you that each situation is being reviewed expeditiously with a hope of resolving as many of them to everyone's satisfaction as soon as possible.  We are aware that many of our issues are related to the timing of the routes while a few are related to changes in stops that have led to potential safety issues.  Given that safety is paramount to all of us, we will address those immediately and will then proceed to ensure that children arrive at school and back to you at your homes in the afternoon in a reasonable amount of time.
 
Specifically, I am meeting with the district's transportation department tomorrow morning to review any/all concerns.  I am entering this meeting with the intent of resolving them prior to the close of this week and no later than the start of next week. Today, we are fortunate to have an equal number of drivers to the number of established routes so this becomes a matter of rearranging what resources we have available to us.  While this may seem to be a simple task, it becomes quite complex when you consider the impact that one change may have on another situation that, at the present, does not present as a problem.
 
As a means of providing you with the background for how the routes were designed this year, I offer that the district did not complete an efficiency study as has been reported by some of the district's staff.  Routes were not rearranged or configured to be longer or more populated as a cost savings strategy. Quite frankly, the district expended more resources than planned to have the routes configured by an independent professional who has expertise in using the routing software we use here and is also used by many other school districts across the country.  The routes were designed by taking into consideration many variables that included the number of available drivers, the starting and ending times of each school, the district's desire to maintain all routes to be no longer than approximately 35 minutes, and a number of other things.  It is apparent that in some cases, some adjustments are both necessary and warranted.  This is not the result of who completed the routing scheme but rather an outgrowth of past practice, the district's geography, the configuration of the roads in Haddam and Killingworth and other similar things.  
 
As always, we will continue to review and make adjustments that are both feasible and achievable using all of the information we have available to us at this time.
 
Last and certainly not least, I thank you for your patience as we review what is necessary to achieve the highest level of efficiency with our transportation system. 
 
I will provide you with another update at the close of this week and I look forward to our continued work together throughout this school year and well into the future.         

Very Truly Yours,

Gary
Gary S. Mala
Superintendent of Schools
Regional School District 17
(860) 345-4534
http://www.rsd17.org
"Transforming Teaching and Learning"