The Hillsborough County School Board on Tuesday approved a new bell schedule for the 2018-2019 school year. Among the benefits, the new schedule will end the bus rush that resulted in an estimated 12,000 children arriving late to school each day.
"About one out of every 20 kids in the district is late to school every day. This is a change that's been needed for decades. We didn't have time for buses to get to different schools," said Grayson Kamm, Communications and Media Officer for Hillsborough Schools.
Hillsborough County School District approves new 2018-2019 bell schedule
Kamm says currently bus drivers have 30 minutes to leave a high school drop-off, run an entire elementary school route, and get kids to school before the first bell. Under the new schedule, in some cases, drivers will have 50 minutes.
"It won't be so rushed. Drivers won't be doing double runs. It won't be such a big mess," said Kamm.
But how will the new bell times impact rush hour traffic? Typically the roads in Hillsborough County are busy by 6:45am with the majority of crashes occurring between then and 7:45am. Once into the 8am hour, traffic begins to thin on most roads unless there's a major crash.
