Bus Schedules Detailed for Longer Elementary School Days

Bernards Schools Superintendent Nick Markarian sent out an email to district parents on Thursday specifying how bus arrivals and departures from the school system's four elementary schools will be changed now that the kindergarten through grade 5 school day will be lengthened by 30 minutes next fall.

Starting on the first day of school, on Monday, Sept. 9, school buses will be scheduled to arrive at each of the four elementary schools by 8:25 a.m., to reflect a starting time that has been moved to 8:45 a.m., instead of the longstanding 9 a.m. Parents also will be asked to arrive before that time.

Buses then will arrive at the elementary schools — including Oak Street, Cedar Hill, Liberty Corner and Mount Prospect — at 3 p.m., which had been the dismissal time for elementary students in previous school years.

The new dismissal time for kindergarten through grade five will be 3:15 p.m., according to the superintendent. That will add an additional half-hour to the total elementary school day, increasing the time from six to six and a half hours.

As reported by the N.J. School Report Card, the elementary school instructional time in Bernards Township in previous years has been 5 hours and 10 minutes per day, as compared to a state average of 5 hours and 43 minutes, Markarian noted in a letter to parents sent out earlier in the summer.

"The 33-minute difference makes the elementary school day in Bernards Township about 10 percent shorter than the average elementary school day in the state," he said. Put another way, if the elementary school day in Bernards Township had 33 more instructional minutes per day, for 180 days, it would equate to an additional 19 days of school at the current rate of instructional time, he reasoned. 

To make matters even more challenging, changes in public education in New Jersey have required a shift to additional testing for students, as well as new requirements for evaluating the effectiveness of educators.

"Implementing all of these new initiatives of course requires even more time. Taking into consideration all of these issues it becomes clear that there is a time crunch in our elementary schools," Markarian said. "The time has come where a change needs to be made — a change that will help us have more time to do a better job with less stress."

Bus passes will be mailed out on Aug. 30, according to Thursday's email. Those eligible for busing services should receive their bus pass no later than Sept. 4.

Those with specific concerns should email the transportation provider directly. An email link specifically for this purpose, as well as for complete information on transportation is available on the transportation page of the school district website.