New bus routes could help Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Public Schools control costs and reduce traffic congestion on Northside Road.

The new routes, approved earlier this month by the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Board of Education, include new school-start times for the three schools on Northside Road.

File photo by Justin Falls (ENLARGE)

Children wait on the corner of Moore St. and Parkview Dr. in Elizabeth City for the bus August 25, 2005.

For the 2008-09 school year, Northside Elementary School will start school at 7:50 a.m. instead of 8 a.m., Pasquotank County High School will start at 8:20 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. and Elizabeth City Middle School will start at 8:30 a.m. instead of 8:15 a.m. The final bell for each school will move to 2:20 p.m., 3:20 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. respectively.

Bob Luther, Elizabeth City-Pasquotank director of transportation, said the new school-start times will reduce traffic congestion on Northside Road at the beginning and end of the school day. He said traffic in the morning will be spread out over a 30-minute period.

Luther said the new start times also will allow the school district to stagger its routes, sending buses on more than one trip to and from the Northside schools. He said the new routes will provide flexibility, as the Northside buses could be redeployed to other schools within Elizabeth City if needed.

"We're going to have extra capacity when we need it," Luther said.

Luther said he does not expect the new routes to save the district on fuel or mileage. However, they will prevent the district from having to add additional buses and drivers to accommodate an expected increase in bus usage, he said.

"With gasoline prices and family budgets what they are, we expect ridership to go up," he said. "It's definitely not going down."

Elizabeth City-Pasquotank will open the year with 68 buses and the same number of regular drivers, plus seven to eight substitute drivers. Only one new bus, for special education students, has been added since last year.

Luther said the new school-start times for the Northside Road schools are the first in what could be a series of bus routing changes. He said routes for the district's other schools will be examined as well.

Elizabeth City-Pasquotank is not the only school district trying to save money by making its bus routes more efficient. Bertie County Schools saved an estimated $400,000 by combining routes for two schools, according to the Ahoskie-based Roanoke-Chowan News Herald.