LARGO, Fla. — After a school year filled with hiccups with Pinellas County’s school bus system, the district is considering changing start times at a handful of public schools.

The district’s transportation department is still short a number of bus drivers and officials said they believe combining routes at schools that are close together could help operations run more smoothly.


Impacted Schools Include:

  • East Lake Middle School in Tarpon Springs

  • Bay Point Middle in St. Pete

  • Pinellas High Innovation (formerly Clearwater Intermediate)

Under the proposed plan, the routes for East Lake middle and high schools would be combined, as well as those at Lakewood High and Bay Point Middle. Some elementary schools located near each other would join routes as well. 

This would change the start times for Pinellas High Innovation (formerly Clearwater Intermediate) and East Lake Middle to 7: 25 a.m. and Bay Point Middle to 7:15 a.m.  All three schools currently begin at either 9:15 a.m. or 9:40 a.m.

“I’m excited that they’re trying something. Anything is better than what they’re doing because what they’re doing is not working,” said Farah Vann, the mother of a seventh-grade East Lake student.

Vann said her students don’t take the bus because the timing has been unreliable.

She said students who do take the bus are missing part of their first class some days and not arriving home until 5:30 p.m. Vann said some of her concerns with the new plan involve the wide range of ages all traveling on the same bus and preteen students getting out of school so early in the day.

“Somebody has to watch them," she said. "So what are we going to do with the middle-schoolers who can’t stay home by themselves and the parents who work? Or that have to leave their job at 2 in the afternoon?"

Proposed changes also include the bus stop model for school choice programs. What was 383 stops would be reduced to about 30 under the new plan.

Parents will also be asked to take a survey and weigh in on if their child plans to take the bus, so that transportation officials can plan more efficiently.

The proposal will be discussed at a school board workshop on April 18 before it heads to a formal vote.

The vote has not yet been scheduled.