Remedy for School Transportation Woes in Process with Changes Coming November 30
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Report on the Meeting of the Amherst School Committee, October 27, 2026
This was a hybrid meeting held in Town Hall and was recorded.
Present
Deb Leonard (Chair), Andrew Hart, Laura Jane Hunter, Bridget Hynes, and Sarah Marshall.
Staff: Dr. E. Xiomara Herman (Dr. Xi, Superintendent) and Shannon Bernacchia (School Finance Director)
Overhaul of Bus Routes in the Works
A combination of a severe shortage of school bus drivers and the addition of new routes due to the opening of Amethyst Brook Elementary School and Chestnut Street Academy has resulted in long bus rides and late bus arrivals this fall. To remedy the situation, the school administration is working to revamp the bus routes.
Amherst owns eight school buses, but the loss of in-house drivers has left only four available to transport students. In addition, the newly contracted provider, Kuzmeskus, is also short drivers, so there are about 7 to 10 fewer bus routes than last year. If one driver calls out for a day, it means doubling up on already long routes. Substitute drivers unfamiliar with the routes have missed stops.
Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman (Dr. Xi) outlined the steps being taken to improve the situation. A survey sent to all households received over 700 replies. Herman said parents were especially concerned about consistent pick-up and drop-off times and ensuring children arrive at school on time.
The survey asked families to verify their addresses, since some are incorrect, especially for students in apartment complexes. Also, some parents want their children picked up and dropped off at a different location because of after-school programs or childcare arrangements. These factors make designing bus routes complicated. In addition, Finance Director Shannon Bernacchia stated that the district is responsible for transporting its regional students to Smith Vocational School and Franklin Tech.
The district now has over 600 designated bus stops for elementary students. The initial plan was to reduce that number to 245, but it will now be modified based on several conditions. The district is required to provide transportation to any student living more than 1.5 miles from school. However, the new plan will provide home pick-up for all kindergartners and will take into account the need to cross busy streets or use streets with poor walkability.
To develop the new routes, the school has consulted with UMass transportation experts and is using the town’s 2015 Walkability Study. The schools have adjusted the start of their instructional programs by 10 minutes to allow for late bus arrival. Crocker Farm and Amethyst Brook Elementary Schools begin at 8:10 a.m., and Chestnut Street Academy begins at 9 a.m. In the first six weeks of school, half of Crocker Farm buses arrived late, with the latest being at 8:30 a.m. Statistics were not given for Amethyst Brook and Chestnut Street Academy. No changes are planned to school start times.
Dr. Xi said that the changes were being made to provide the best service. Cost-saving was not being considered. She stressed that managers from Kuzmeskus have been meeting weekly with the school district and are motivated to solve the problems. She said the schools are monitoring Kuzmeskus’ compliance with their contract and working with the school’s attorneys on what recourse the schools have for noncompliance.
This is the first year that the school district has contracted with Kuzmeskus. Amherst School Committee (ASC) Chair Deb Leonard reminded committee members that when the contract with the previous provider, Five Star, expired, a consultant hired by the school system recommended that the schools go with Kuzmeskus. They were the low bid, but ASC Chair Deb Leonard said that wasn’t the only consideration in the decision.
The timeline for finalizing the new routes is as follows:
Dr. Xi stressed that no changes will be made without feedback from school families. Two more listening sessions are scheduled in November. She said the preferred way to communicate with families is through ParentSquare because it translates information into families’ preferred languages, and many families speak languages other than English and Spanish.
In addition, in-house bus drivers will drive the new routes first to test them before implementing them. School administrators will also drive them to get an idea of street conditions. Dr. Xi emphasized the complexity of the situation, but was confident a solution could be found.
School committee members suggested incentives such as signing bonuses to attract more in-house drivers. Dr. Xi said that these issues must go through the union and the regional schools, but she would explore that possibility and get back to the committee. Bridget Hynes raised the possibility of applying to the Town of Amherst for free cash to cover the cost of incentives.
Report on Chestnut Street Academy Launch
Assistant Principal of Chestnut Street Academy Rich Ferro reported that, aside from the tardy buses, the launch of the sixth-grade academy has gone well. “We’re still having fun,” he said.
Because of the late buses, homeroom has been extended to 9:10, with attendance being taken then, when 90% of the buses have arrived. The problems anticipated with sharing the bathrooms with the middle schoolers and having all 134 sixth graders at recess at once have not materialized. The sixth graders are on a different schedule than the middle schoolers, and teachers escort them between classes, so the only real contact is before and after school.
When ASC member Sarah Marshall asked about the language exploratory curriculum, Ferro said the school was unable to arrange French and Chinese instruction, so it is only offering a quarter each of Latin and Spanish. Engineering and chorus were added for the remaining two quarters, and these have proved popular. He said that the specialized programs (AIMS and Building Blocks) also seem to be going well, utilizing the middle-school Special Education staff.
Ferro cited schedule problems that staff hope to improve in subsequent years. Because specials teachers (PE, art, music, technology) are only at the school in the morning before heading to Crocker Farm in the afternoon, all specials classes are bunched together in the morning, and all core academic classes are in the afternoon. Ferro said it would be preferable to have each specials teacher at the school for a full day once a week so specials and core classes could be spread throughout the day.
With the gym set to reopen following the recently completed roof repair, PE classes can now move inside and the Caminantes classroom and middle-school Chinese class can relocate to permanent classrooms. There is still some more work to be done on the ventilation system, and Dr. Xi said that the air quality of the building will not be tested again until all work is completed
Elementary School Enrollment Increased this School Year
Enrollment in grades pre-K to six has increased from 751 in the 2025-2026 school year to 993 this year. Amethyst Brook has 560 students, only 25 below the building capacity. Crocker Farm has 309 (including the preschool), and Chestnut Street Academy has 134. Attendance has averaged 96.8% so far this school year.
Dr. Xi noted the especially large second grade at 164 students, saying this grade will need to be carefully tracked as it moves through the system to ensure adequate resources to accommodate the large number of students. She said that more students typically transfer in at the upper grades. The district tracks the reasons students enter and leave it.
Staffing vacancies remain, but Dr. Xi said the district is continuing its efforts to fill them.
Ribbon Cutting for Amethyst Brook Elementary School
Amethyst Brook School held a well-attended ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday, October 26. Attendees toured the school and observed the playground, which was designed to be accessible to all students. The playing fields, partially financed by a resident-sponsored Community Preservation Act grant, are under construction and expected to be complete by spring. The softball backstop is in place.
At the ceremony, the school administrators and town officials were joined by State Treasurer Deb Goldberg, State Representative Mindy Domb, and State Senator Jo Comerford. Members of the student orchestra, dance program, and chorale performed.
Ginny Hamilton, representing the Yes for Amherst group that organized support for the debt exclusion override that financed the school project, presented the Parent-Guardian Organization with a check for over $2,000 left over from their fundraising to be used for student initiatives. The debt exclusion passed with over 80% of the vote in 2023.
First Quarter Budget Report on Track Except for Increased Preschool Transportation
School Finance Director Shannon Bernacchia reported that first-quarter expenses are close to the expected amount, except for $406,000 for special-education transportation, which exceeded the budget by about $300,000. Bernacchia said the shortage of bus drivers led to the unexpected need to contract out for services at an additional cost. The deficit was eased by a $100,000 grant that Representative Mindy Domb helped obtain from the Department of Early Childhood Education and that will be applied to the transportation expense.
Bernacchia cautioned that the first-quarter figures represent only the first month of the school year, and subsequent reports will provide a more accurate picture of expenses.
Hynes and Hunter Propose Study of Technology Use
ASC members Bridget Hynes and Laura Jane Hunter proposed a survey to collect data on how technology is used in the schools. Their memo is based on a Cambridge, Massachusetts report. It proposes “a brief anonymous survey distributed to K–6 teachers” addressing:
■ How screens and digital devices are used in instruction;
■ What activities or materials they replace;
■ Whether non-screen alternatives were considered.
Dr. Xi asked for clarity on how the data would be used. The ASC agreed that there was no urgency to collecting this data. Further discussion will be delayed until after the district undergoes its evaluation by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), November 16 through 20.