OXFORD — Parents of students at Waterford and Harrison elementary schools are being asked to tell Oxford Hills School District administrators how they want their children to be bused.

The parent survey stems from having all third- through sixth-graders from both towns attend Harrison Elementary School and some prekindergarten and all kindergarten, first and second grades from both towns attend Waterford Memorial School this year.

The plan was approved this year to reduce a budget deficit of about $95,000.

The schools are about a 20-minute drive from each other.

Superintendent Rick Colpitts said he has heard from several parents who are frustrated about the time it takes to transfer a student from one school to the other. A shuttle bus allows parents to drop off their children at one school and be taken to the other school, if necessary.

The problem, Colpitts said Tuesday night, is that it can take 45 minutes or longer to get the children to the right school because they are riding a school bus that has other stops along the way.

“We’re trying to expedite that time,” he said.

The Oxford Hills School Board was told Tuesday night that a plan is being developed to address the problem, but Colpitts and school board member Nick DiConzo of the Operations Committee said after the meeting that the solution is not yet at hand.

Colpitts said several options are being looked into, including a nonstop bus transfer between schools in the afternoon run that would allow a student to be dismissed from the Waterford school at 3:10 p.m. and be transferred to the Harrison Elementary School for parent pickup by 3:30 p.m. The same would be implemented for Harrison students.

But Colpitts said it is imperative to know how many students would take advantage of the bus before any firm plans established.

The survey asks parents to state whether they would prefer to have the option of picking up their children who attend both schools at one school and if so, whether they would use the afternoon nonstop bus shuttle daily basis, occasionally or not at all.

DiConzo said the Operations Committee has been told the cost of resolving the busing issue could be as high as $10,000 if another bus driver has to hired. But, he said, Transportation Director David Fontaine is looking at ways to adjust other bus routes in Norway and Paris to shorten certain routes and free up drivers for the Harrison/Waterford school shuttle.

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