Every year, prior to the start of school, Virginia Beach City Public Schools’ Office of Transportation Services staff review bus stops and make changes based on a number of criteria. Student safety, of course, ranks first. The past two school years have been particularly challenging because of rising fuel costs. Consequently staff reviewed the division’s bus stops and identified ones that could be consolidated without compromising student safety. As result, 500 bus stops total were consolidated over school years 2006-2007 and 2007-2008. In anticipation of the coming school year, transportation officials once again reviewed the division’s bus stops with an eye towards consolidation. As a result, 481 of approximately 13,000 bus stops have been eliminated.

“It’s important that parents become familiar with the scheduled bus stops in their neighborhoods prior to that first day of school because there have been some significant changes made. The best way to do that is to visit the school division’s Web site, vbschools.com, on August 19 when the 2008-09 bus schedule will be available. In addition, these also will be published in the back-to-school issue of the Virginia Beach Beacon on Sunday, August 24,” said David Pace, director of transportation services.

Pace noted that currently the distance between bus stops -- three-tenths of a mile for elementary children and a half mile for secondary students -- were recommended in the Student Transportation Study and subsequently approved by the School Board in January 2007. “Over the years we have established many bus stops in an effort to offer superior customer service to our families. While good customer service remains a focus, the end result is that we have many bus stops that are much closer together than our guidelines suggest. This is now the third year where we have actively reviewed bus stops with the intent of implementing consolidations that are safe and secure in nature. The annual cost of fuel to run the school division’s 630-bus fleet is considerable -- $4.5million. We must look at ways to hold these costs down as much as is possible,” he said.

Pace noted that transportation staff has anticipated that there may be more questions this year about bus stops. Consequently a special e-mail account, vbcpsbusstop@vbschools.com, has been established to help ensure that these are addressed in a timely manner. “We will make every effort to provide answers within 48 hours of receipt,” he said.

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