Formal Request for Immediate Operational Pause, Data Disclosure, and Mandatory Town Hall Review of Proposed District Schedule and Transportation Overhauls

We, the undersigned residents, parents, taxpayers, and stakeholders of the Kenston Local School District, issue this formal request to Superintendent Dr. Bruce Willingham and the Kenston Board of Education.

We request an immediate pause on the implementation of the newly proposed school day schedules (the 9:20 a.m. Timmons Elementary start) and the proposed 4th–12th grade shared-bus transportation model. We request that no finalized action, operational funding allocation, or scheduling implementation occur prior to or during the scheduled June 29, 2026 Board of Education meeting until the administration addresses the community transparency criteria outlined below.

To ensure the district establishes administrative transparency, we require the following actions be completed and published for public review:

1. Mandatory Single-Topic Public Town Hall Meetings

The school administration and the Board must co-host a minimum of two comprehensive public Town Hall meetings dedicated exclusively and solely to these schedule and transportation overhauls.

Strict Agenda Restriction: These forums cannot be used to discuss any other district business, general updates, or unrelated administrative matters. The entire duration of these meetings must be strictly confined to stakeholder questioning and administrative data presentation regarding these specific overhauls.

Accessibility Mandate: To accommodate the demanding schedules of working professionals and dual-income households, these forums cannot be limited to mid-day or routine weekday morning sessions. We require at least one evening forum and one virtual streaming option with a live, unmoderated Q&A portal to ensure full community accessibility.

2. Immediate Disclosure of Existing Reports and Studies

We request that the administration and the Board release any and all internal reports, data sets, impact studies, or feasibility assessments that were utilized to justify these scheduling and transportation overhauls.

Effective Immediately: These existing materials must be emailed directly to all Kenston Local School District parents and published on the district website.

The community requests immediate transparency regarding this disclosure; if these operational decisions have already been made, the supporting documentation must be made accessible to the public without delay.

3. Full Transparency on Daily Schedules and "Specials" Minutes

We demand full, immediate disclosure of the exact internal daily schedules for all buildings, specifically regarding instructional minutes per week allocated to "specials" (Art, Music, Physical Education, and Technology).

The community requires formal clarification regarding reports that intermediate and elementary grade levels are facing an unannounced reduction in these vital developmental classes.

The administration must provide a clear, side-by-side comparison of the 2025–2026 instructional minutes versus the proposed 2026–2027 minutes to prove that core creative and physical education curricula are not being quietly diluted to accommodate logistical busing shifts.

4. Comprehensive Operational Logistics & Safety Analytics

We request the administration publicly release the full logistical data set that prompted this overhaul no later than Monday, June 22, 2026 (one week prior to the June voting session). This disclosure must include:

The comprehensive risk-assessment and safety protocol analytics governing the transportation of 4th through 12th-grade students on shared buses.

The calculated projections for bus ride times, driver retention data, and specific behavioral management frameworks intended to manage the varied social dynamics, language, and maturity levels present across a 4th–12th grade student cohort.

5. Working-Family Operational and Economic Impact Study

We request a formal study evaluating the compounding logistical and financial strain these changes place on district families. The administration must account for the operational challenges a 9:20 a.m. elementary start creates for dual-income and working-parent households. This must include a transparent assessment of the availability and structural costs of local before-school care, as well as the impact on parents' professional commitments.

6. Fiscal and Open Enrollment Risk Analysis

We request a financial disclosure outlining the projected risk of open-enrollment attrition or departures to private alternatives. If families choose to leave the district due to unworkable logistical scheduling, the subsequent loss of state-level per-pupil funding must be balanced against whatever marginal operational savings these changes claim to generate.

As a community, we are ready to partner constructively with district leadership to address whatever underlying operational or budgetary pressures are driving these drastic overhauls. We are solution-oriented stakeholders. However, constructive problem-solving is entirely impossible when the community is handed a finished product without understanding the root cause of the problem.

If administration and the Board do not provide this data, immediately release existing studies, and host these mandated, single-topic public forums prior to the June 29, 2026 meeting, it will represent a significant gap in stakeholder transparency and community engagement.