It’s back to school time, and Prescott School District students will be invited back on Aug. 31, one day before the official start date.

Students will be welcomed back to “resocialize” and get ready for the school year.

The day will be a walk-through of sorts to get students used to being back to school and to learn of changes and to acclimate themselves to new buildings if they are changing.

“Our goal is returning to learn,” Superintendent Dr. Rick Spicuzza told the school board last Wednesday night. “Our plans are modeled after science.”

The district worked hard to put together the plan for the school year, which officially kicks off Sept. 1. However, Aug. 31 there will be all hands on deck for the day, which isn’t required, but families are encouraged to send their students. Buses will run and foodservice will be fully staffed.

The district put together its plans and presented them to Pierce County Public Health.

“It’s not just returning to normal. It’s our new reality,” said Spicuzza.

And one big thing changing is how students are bused to school. The board made the difficult decision at its monthly meeting to not run bus routes in the City of Prescott where they aren’t required to bus students. Transportation Director Tim Rundquist said that buses won’t run on the south side of Hwy. 10/35 but anything on the other side of the highways will still have bus service.

“This is one of the most challenging adjustments we will be putting forward,” said Spicuzza.

With a goal of having less kids on buses, the district put together a plan to take the two buses operating in the city and have them bus kids from rural areas instead.

Spicuzza said the longest a high schooler could have to walk is 1.7 miles.

“Anything on the outside of Hwy. 10 and 35 is a hazardous zone. Inside that area, the school does not legally have to provide transportation,” said Rundquist.

Not many high schoolers ride the bus in the city.

“Inside of the Hwy. 10-35 corridor, we have very, very few high school students that do use the buses,” said Spicuzza.

“This is a tough conversation,” said board member Steve Sizemore. “On a day like today, walking a mile and a half isn’t a big deal. Jan. 14, that’s a different story.”

Board member Tanya Holub said her family will be affected and will have to make other transportation plans.

“This does affect my kids,” she said. “There are some sacrifices my kids will have to make so we can open our doors safely. I completely understand that as a parent I’m going to have to come up with something different.”

Rundquist said that last year the buses that served the townships averaged 36-65 students per bus. The new busing plan should reduce that to 30 per bus.

Students will have assigned seating on buses and families will sit together.

The buses will start running in the city again when the pandemic crisis is over.

“This is in response to an emergency situation. If and when a vaccine is in place and we know it’s effective, we would then shift back when we felt it was comfortable and healthy to do so,” Spicuzza said.

For families left with a transportation problem, an idea was floated of having parent committees put together a calling tree to help with car-pooling.

The district will also work to put together specific safe walking routes to schools and ask the police department to monitor the situation, as well as to put together that parent calling tree. It was noted that the Hastings YMCA also does offer before and after school care at the school for families who need to drop off students early.

The board voted unanimously for the plan to “eliminate non-mandated bus routes.”