LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Bus routes can't be much more efficient than they are now, but school officials are looking at small ways to reduce the time students spend traveling to and from school.

 

Elementary School Principal Martin McEvoy said on Tuesday that he traveled the three bus routes with a staff member from DuFour Bus Co. and could not find a way to truly reduce the time students spend riding. Instead, he's looking to see if there could be more common bus stops, instead of always bringing students to their doors.

 

"We want to see if we can reduce the time students spend on the bus to and from school," McEvoy said of his trip, which included using Map My Run to see the distance and time. 

 

But, he found "they really seem to serve three distinct areas of the town. I was not able to identify any overlaps or easy fixes."

 

The principal wants to look at the routes further to instead see if there could be "fewer stops and more stops in common" where groups of students can be dropped off — provided the walks home from there are safe. He considered possibly using four smaller buses, but said that wouldn't be any less expensive for transportation.

 

Chairwoman Regina DiLego noted another small change could be instead of traveling down Summer Street to get to Bridge Street after a loop around Berkshire Village, the bus could swing over to Old Cheshire Road and drop off students who otherwise would be sitting on the bus for a half hour.

 

In 2014, the school eliminated one bus route, bringing it down to three plus a shuttle for students from New Ashford. However, shortly afterward the School Committee began to field complaints about the time students were spending on the bus, reportedly for up to 45 minutes. 

 

There was also discussion about the distances students should have to walk with a policy in place saying fifth-graders could walk from two miles away — a distance none of the School Committee members felt was reasonable. The school's location is particularly different from other districts because it sits on top of a hill with no sidewalks or streetlights on one side. That policy has yet to be updated as school officials waited for a bus route analysis to be done.

 

Children will return to classes on Sept. 1. One program the school opted to continue after a pilot was to serve breakfast. The School Committee gave the approval to test a program in the spring which is a "grab and go" model providing those who sign up for it a small breakfast to take to the classroom.

 

"We are serving breakfast from the very first day of school. We are very happy with that program, too. It is going really well," McEvoy said.

 

McEvoy said this summer a lot of work has been done to clean and make repairs inside the school to get ready for opening day. Additionally, crews from the Berkshire County House of Corrections repainted hallways and the gymnasium to provide a fresh "vibrancy" to the school.

 

"They're great. We really love to have them. We are fortunate to have that partnership," McEvoy said.

 

The staff will also get a lesson on Aug. 30 on a switch to PowerSchool, a program that streamlines an array of student information. McEvoy said the staff had been using three different systems to track the students.

 

"It can do so much. We were using three different programs. It streamlines everything," McEvoy said. "It's going to  be very efficient and serve kids and families much better."

 

Also on Tuesday, the School Committee elected DiLego to continue to serve as the chairman of the board and PJ Pannesco as vice chairman. Danielle Taylor, who was newly elected in the spring, was elected secretary despite not attending the meeting.