Child care problems led a list of concerns voiced by parents and a couple of teachers during the first of three public input sessions on the school district’s proposed new bus schedule.

About two dozen folks sat in the Lakeland High School auditorium to get answers from district Assistant Superintendent for Administrative Services Kevin Alston, Coordinator for Transportation Lonnie Reavis and Superintendent Deran Whitney.

The proposed schedule, which the district estimates would save up to $865,000 in pupil transportation costs, largely by decreasing the number of contracted drivers, would divide Suffolk’s public schools among four different start and finish times.

Currently, middle and high schools operate from 7:40 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. and elementary schools from 9 a.m. to 3:15 p.m.

The new schedule under consideration by the School Board would have separate times for middle and high schools and would divide elementary schools between “A” and “B” schedules.

Middle school would start at 7:25 a.m., and high school at 8:30 a.m. Booker T. Washington, Hillpoint, Oakland, Creekside, Nansemond Parkway and Southwestern elementary schools would start at 9:40 a.m., and Driver, Elephant’s Fork, Florence Bowser, Kilby Shores, Mack Benn Jr. and Northern Shores elementary schools at 9:15 a.m.

A recurring concern for those attending Tuesday’s meeting was splitting high and middle school schedules. Parents said different starting and finishing times would interfere with high schoolers driving middle-school siblings to and from school. Others said their bosses might not be willing to adjust work schedules, and that extra child-care costs would result.

There was also a call for zoning to be revisited alongside any schedule changes.

“The way the kids are zoned is crazy,” one parent said. “Kids in West Washington Street are going to Driver Elementary when they are passing two other elementary schools.”

Another parent complained, “You all are not taking into consideration the hardworking parents, single parents. Look at me as a parent, trying to work and survive out here.”

Alston’s said bus runs would be shorter than they are now. He added that officials could tweak what has been proposed, but noted the savings proposed would have to come from elsewhere, likely affecting instructional staff, if the proposal is spiked.

“We would have to find more money to pay for those positions and more money for buses that are mandated” without the new system, he argued.

Whitney said educational cuts would be the “backup plan,” pointing to a proposed budget that incorporates savings from the new schedule to give educators a 2-percent raise and those in their seventh, eighth and ninth years with the district an additional bump.

“Eighty percent of the budget is personnel,” he said. “Basically, when we are talking about decreasing the budget we are talking about decreasing people.”

Answers to frequently asked questions, as well as questions from public input sessions, will be posted beginning March 4 at www.spsk12.net, the district says.

Another input session was scheduled for Nansemond River High School Wednesday, and the final installment is Thursday at 7 p.m. at King’s Fork Middle School.