LEE'S SUMMIT, Mo. — Students in Lee’s Summit will spend less time on the bus next year.
That’s one immediate change coming as the Lee's Summit R-7 School District enters phase two of its goal of building and implementing a comprehensive facilities master plan. The plan evaluates internal systems and recommends changes.
This school year, the average bus ride for students in middle and high school is 50 minutes each way. Transportation Director Keith Henry said several students spend more than one hour on the bus. Beginning this fall, the district hopes to cut 20 minutes off every student’s commute.
In order to cut down on ride time, buses will pick up students at neighborhood stops, instead of in front of individual homes.
Henry predicts the average walk for a student will be less than 800 feet, equivalent to half a lap around a standard track. Henry said some high schoolers walk farther across a parking lot after driving themselves to school.
The change is about “giving students back the gift of time,” Henry said.
“We know idle time, sitting on the bus, is not the best time spent. Shrinking that time and minimizing that time will have a benefit, a positive benefit, for our students, our community and definitely our parents,” he said.
The bus ride changes will not impact elementary school students.
Looking further toward the future, a team of district staff and parents formed through the comprehensive facilities master plan is evaluating whether to move sixth-grade students out of elementary schools.
Currently, middle schools are for students in seventh and eighth grades. Students from kindergarten to sixth grade are grouped together in elementary school buildings.
Associate Superintendent of Academic Services Katie Collier said sixth grade is a pivotal time for children, and the district wants to see if they’re better suited in a middle school environment with more class choices and ways to get involved outside of the classroom.
“Connections with peers become much more important at that age," Collier said. "And students really begin to further develop and want to hone their talents or areas of interest academically or with extracurriculars."
She cautioned any potential changes to sixth grade are at least two school years away from taking effect. Collier said several teams and committees would have to review and approve any recommendation, and then the district would need time to implement whatever the recommendation might call for.
