BUTLER TWP — The Butler School District has more students riding buses as a result of building consolidation. It has also has had an increase in the number of potential discipline issues on buses.

More information from the district administration was presented Tuesday to the After-Action Review committee that was created to study the effects of consolidation. That May 2015 consolidation closed five elementary schools, with the Center Avenue School reopening as an alternative education and emotional needs school.

Transportation data was presented by Debby Croft, the supervisor of transportation, who is new to the position this year.

With the consolidation, the number of students riding a bus increased by 8.5 percent, from 6,719 riders in the 2014-15 year to 7,288 in the 2015-16 year, Croft said. However, the district has only had a 1 percent increase in the number of incidents that occur on buses, she said.

An “incident” is any written report filed by a bus driver, including both safety and behavioral issues.

While the first quarter of the 2014-15 school year had incidents involving 4.2 percent of the riders, the first quarter of this year had an incident rate of 5.2 percent, according to data presented by Croft.

However, Leland Clark, board member, stressed that this 1 percent increase represents a 23.8 percent increase in incidents.

He also noted that the increase in the number of total incidents went from 284 in the first quarter of 2014-15 to 382 in the first quarter of this school year.

This increase can possibly be attributed to the increase in riders, according to Superintendent Dale Lumley.

“We have an increase in incidents, but we obviously have an increase in riders,” he said, stressing that many of the new riders had never ridden on a school bus before.

The district also looked at the actual run times of each bus route, as determined by the driver, who calculated the exact run time in comparison to the number the district’s software, VersaTrans, provides.

The middle school’s bus run times are the most off-target, according to Croft. The district’s target is for student’s to not be on the bus longer than 45 minutes.

Only 34.8 percent of the middle school’s buses run under 45 minutes, Croft said. This is likely because the buses must pick up students in only two grades in the entire district, she said.

The Center Avenue School has a 100 percent success rate, with all bus routes under 45 minutes. A total of 79.4 percent of the kindergarten through fourth grade and 86.4 percent of the secondary bus routes are under that target as well.

Districtwide, 73.6 percent of all the routes have students on the bus for less than 45 minutes, according to data provided by Croft.

The district covers 150 square miles, and Croft compared the bus run times to other districts. The Karns City School District covers 125 square miles and has an average bus run time of 35 to 50 minutes. The Moniteau School District covers 152 square miles and has an average elementary run time of 42 minutes and average secondary run of 35 minutes.

For Lumley, the idea of the 45-minute bus route may be based on an “unrealistic goal,” he said.

Previously, the district’s goal was a bus run time under 60 minutes, and the new decision for a 45-minute ideal was made without input from the previous supervisor of transportation, he said.

Committee Chairman Jennifer Cummings stated that the consolidation still means there could be a risk of increased bus times.

“Yes, (that 45-minute limit) may have been unrealistic, but to be fair, that was a risk that we brought up. That if you consolidate, the bus times are going to be too long,” she said.

“So while we may say that we’ve done our best and we’ll continue to do our best, we still need to acknowledge that that risk was realized. We definitely have higher bus times.”

Lumley responded, “But not higher bus times than we had previously. The question was are the bus times going to go through the roof compared to what we had before. So we probably shouldn’t have set the 45-minute limit because we didn’t have that before. We had a 60-minute limit.

“We kind of set ourselves up for failure by saying we were going to go with 45 minutes.”

While a realistic and appropriate bus run time was not further discussed, board member Nina Teff wanted to know how many students were specifically impacted by being on the bus for longer than 45 minutes, data which the district did not have available.

Additional information included updated figures on secondary class sizes, presented by Brian Slamecka, assistant superintendent of secondary education.

During the consolidation, the district identified 27 students as the maximum target class size for secondary students.

At the intermediate high school, 6.5 percent of classes are above that target. At the senior high school, 18.5 percent of classes are above that target.

Previously, in the 2014-15 school year, 9.1 percent of classes at the junior, intermediate and senior high schools had a class size of more than 27 students.

Slamecka added that classes such as physical education, chorus and band typically have higher enrollment numbers.

Attendance data specific to those students who moved to new schools also was presented to the committee, with significant decreases across the board in both absences and tardies, said Lumley.

“That’s a good, positive thing when we talk about the consolidation,” said board member Bill Halle of the new attendance rates.

The board received information on low-income student percentages, measured by how many students qualify for free and reduced lunches, according to Mary Wolf, assistant superintendent of elementary education.

Before the consolidation, school buildings ranged from 24 percent low-income students to 90 percent at the Broad Street Elementary School. After the consolidation, low-income students make up a range of from 22 percent to 58 percent of the populations, which creates more economic equality at each of the buildings, Wolf said.

“That, to me, is an indication of closing the (economic) gap,” Wolf said.

The committee requested more information on transportation, including data from December and January and what buses may have higher incident numbers than others.

The committee also had a brief discussion regarding the survey for teachers, parents and residents.

Committee members will look over the three draft surveys and forward comments to Cummings and Lumley, who will forward the information to the survey company, Campos Inc. of Pittsburgh.

Cummings wants to have board members test out the survey for any last minute feedback before it is goes public.

While there is no current date for the survey’s release, Lumley does not anticipate that it will be available to the public until early in March.