Coupeville School District seeks feedback for bus schedule

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 18, 2026

The wheels on the bus go round and round… and round and round.

In an effort to resolve some Coupeville students’ lengthy commutes to school, the district is seeking community feedback for its 2026 to 2027 school year bus schedule. It is asking families to take a five-minute survey to as it considers adjusting the bell times and bus schedules for the over 600 students who ride its transportation.

The school district operates five different busses along five routes daily. It also has a sixth bus for McKinney-Vento and special education students and a specialized van transportation for students whose Individualized Education Programs require it.

The core issue with its transportation lies in that the amount of time buses have to complete routes between the bells is less than how long it takes to actually run the routes, Transportation Supervisor and Driver Trainer Robert Wallace said. The two farthest bus stops the Coupeville School District services are 42 miles round trip, which totals 56 minutes. But 13 bus stops and factors like weather, traffic and other day-to-day variables can cause this commute to take upwards of 65 minutes, he explained.

While some closer communities that have high ridership, like the 96 students living in Admirals Cove or the 104 students from Rolling Hills, present a different challenge, being so concentrated in a small area, Wallace said. This creates a tricky task of balancing providing services to everyone while being as efficient as possible, he said.

Because of these issues, Coupeville School District students today are facing inconsistent arrival and dismissal times. He noted these schedule disturbances can have even graver consequences.

“For students receiving special education services, transportation delays are not just an inconvenience; when transportation is written into an IEP, chronic disruption can constitute a denial of FAPE under federal law,” Wallace said.

Drivers struggle to do their jobs when they start their drop-off already running behind, he added. Washington State school bus drivers have a lot of obligations: from pre and post-trip vehicle inspections, to managing student behavior and safety, to following Department of Transportation Regulations and more. It is critical that these duties aren’t skipped to make up for lost time, Wallace noted. These rushed schedules also lead to greater burnout and turnover, which is already an issue statewide, Wallace added.

Families, especially working parents and those living in rural parts of the island, are also affected by the added strain of unpredictable pickup and-drop-off times, he explained.

The school district will need to make some trade-offs to fix these persistent issues. Adjusted bell schedules may improve turnaround windows, but this will change class start and end times. These changes affect people using childcare, parents and school staff work schedules, students with extracurricular activities, and students with IEPs who receive federally mandated transportation services.

“There is no solution that works perfectly for everyone, but there are solutions that work better for most people, and a community survey is how we find out what that looks like before locking in a schedule for an entire school year,” he said.

Families with kids in different school levels, children facing difficulties with schedule changes, and those who use before and after care are especially urged to participate in the survey, according to the school district’s Facebook.

The survey deadline is March 20. Take it online via the Coupeville School District’s Facebook or through a paper survey at the district office on 501 S. Main Coupeville.