The Pleasant Valley School Board on Thursday night approved new start and dismissal times at the elementary school for the upcoming academic year.

Students at PVES will now arrive 10 minutes later than they did last year and be dismissed 10 minutes later.

Last year, both the elementary and intermediate schools had the same start and dismissal times. The purpose of the change is to combine bus runs to have PVE and PVI students on the same bus, and enable parents and bus drivers to get the students to their schools on time.

There wasn’t any discussion about the topic at the meeting, but Superintendent James Konrad said at the district planning meeting earlier in the month that upward of 70% of the families in the school district have more than one child attending classes. He said it makes more both practically and fiscally sense to combine the bus runs. Parents with children at PVE and PVI would no longer have to wait for two separate buses to pick up their children.

“How nice it would be to put all the kids on the same bus even though they’re in the K to 5 span,” Konrad said. “That’s basically six years of consistency where they’re getting picked up at one time and they’re getting dropped off at that same time. I think that would be very helpful for many of our families.”

Konrad added that the bus runs, as they have been, were underutilized.

“PVE and PVI run the same runs basically back-to-back. They just go to different buildings,” Konrad said.

Last year, both PVE and PVI students were expected to arrive by 8:50 a.m. The time change means PVE students will arrive at 9 a.m. and start classes at 9:10 a.m., while PVI students will continue to arrive at 8:50 a.m. with a class start time of 9 a.m.

In the afternoon, PVI students will be picked up first at 3:30 p.m., followed by the PVES students at 3:40 p.m.

“It’s minimal impact on students,” Konrad said.

By reducing the number of bus runs, Konrad said the district could save about $500,000.

“We’re talking about a trade-off of 10 minutes for a substantial of amount of savings,” he said.

Konrad said that parents who plan to drop off and pick up their children should fill out a form to let the school district know they are opting out of bus transportation. This will help the school district know how many students will need bus transportation on a routine basis.

High school and middle school times will remain the same. The high school will continue to have the earliest start with students arriving at 7:05 a.m. Classes will begin at 7:20 a.m. and dismiss at 2:15 p.m.

The middle school day will begin with student arrival at 7:15 a.m., classes starting at 7:26, and dismissal at 2:30 p.m.