January 25, 2012 Geography Bee
Congratulations to seventh grade student Jeremy Goldwasser, who won the Del Mar School competition of the National Geography Bee. All students participated in a class competition to determine the ten school finalists. These ten students then competed in a final round of competition as part of a school-wide assembly. After he completes a written test, we will know if Jeremy will represent Del Mar at the statewide competition in Sacramento. Good luck, Jeremy!
Mathletes
Congratulations to eighth grade student Isaac Perper, who received a perfect score in Round Two of the Mathletes competition, held January 10 at San Jose Middle School in Novato. Seventeen schools were represented by over 200 seventh and eighth grade students, who worked to solve math problems, both individually and in teams. Round Three will be held at San Jose Middle School on February 14. Good luck to Isaac and all the competitors!
Revised AM Bus Routes Pick Up Schedule to Begin January 30: Dear RUSD Parents of AM Blue and Pink Route Bus Riders: As every person who travels Tiburon Boulevard in the morning is aware, traffic delays have reached a new level of daily congestion and frustration. We believe one of the primary causes for the increased traffic is the significant increase in enrollment in the Reed Union School District schools, which has gone up by more than 25% since 2006. As a result of this increased traffic on our main thoroughfares, two school bus routes that end their morning run at Bel Aire have consistently arrived late since the start of the school year. We have just recently learned that the daily late arrival has prompted some parents to drive their children themselves, even though they have paid for bus passes. These added drivers actually exacerbate the traffic congestion. Arriving late to school is very disruptive to both teachers and students as they begin their school day. We have tried monitoring actual pick up times on the earlier part of the routes, and discussed with Tiburon Police Chief Mike Cronin the option of extending the timing of the traffic signals on Tiburon Boulevard, only to learn that Cal Trans has sole authority over the traffic signals since it is a state highway. We are now taking one more step to remedy this situation. On Tuesday, January 17, our Board of Trustees and I decided to move up the pick up times for these two routes by five minutes. Since current expectations are for students to arrive at their bus stop five minutes before the scheduled pick up time, we are hoping this minor change will not be too disruptive to students and families. The new pick up times will be implemented starting on Monday, January 30, 2012. The new morning pick up schedule for the blue and pink buses are listed here. We recognize that all riders on these two routes will be affected by the change, regardless of whether or not they attend Bel Aire School, but we believe this is the most practical solution to the late arrival problem. We have arranged for yard supervisors to be on all three campuses when the new routes (hopefully) deliver students five minutes earlier to the drop off locations. As this minor adjustment to morning pick up times is implemented, we will monitor the arrival times for bus students and hope students can get to class on time for the remainder of this school year. The District is also working with the Town of Tiburon and City of Belvedere to explore long-term solutions to this very frustrating traffic problem. You might have seen the article in the January 18 edition of “The Ark” about the work of a broad based committee, the Community Action to Reduce Traffic (CART), whose members are looking at a variety of solutions. Hopefully by working together we can find workable ideas to solve this challenge. Thank you for everything you can do to ensure all students arrive to school safely and on time. Sincerely, Dr. Steven HerzogSuperintendent
