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Orchard Park and Frontier students to have half day Monday ahead of Buffalo Bills MNF game

Buffalo Bills fans
Posted at 12:28 PM, Sep 13, 2022
and last updated 2022-09-13 18:10:53-04

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — Students in the Orchard Park and Frontier Central School Districts will have a little extra time to get ready for Monday Night Football.

The districts have given students a half day in advance of the home opener against the Tennessee Titans.

While it's a great way to celebrate the hometown team, the move is being made due to the expected game day traffic around Highmark Stadium Monday night.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7:15 p.m., and with tailgating often starting hours before the game, the districts saw the potential for overlapping traffic.

In the Orchard Park Central School District, Windom Elementary School is about a half mile from Highmark Stadium and Orchard Park Middle School is located in the village of Orchard Park, both high-traffic areas during game days.

In the Orchard Park District, the dismissal times will be as follows:

  • Universal pre-K —11:00 a.m.
  • Elementary — 11:30 a.m.
  • High school — 12:45 p.m.

The district said the half-day will allow buses to safely return students home and help Orchard Park Police on what is expected to be a very busy day for the home of the Buffalo Bills.

When the NFL schedule came out the district moved a Superintendent's Conference Day that was scheduled for September to Monday the 19th to accommodate the early release for the Bills game. This is not the first time that a superintendent's conference day or half day has been scheduled in the Orchard Park Central School District on a Bills weeknight game due to the proximity of the stadium in our district.

In the Frontier District, the dismissal times will be as follows:

  • High school — 10:40 a.m.
  • Middle school — 11:15 a.m.
  • Elementary 1 (Pinehurst/Big Tree) — 11:55 a.m.
  • Elementary 2 (Cloverbank/Blasdell) — 12:35 p.m.

The district sent the following statement to families:

Frontier Families:

On September 19th, 2022 the Buffalo Bills have a scheduled Monday night football game in Orchard Park. The start time for this game is 7:15 pm with parking lots opening for fans around the 4 o’clock time frame. After considerable deliberation with our Transportation staff, we have determined that our normally scheduled bussing routes for our elementary schools will be significantly affected by Bills traffic. Therefore, it has been determined that for the benefit and safety of our students, the District will be shifting to an instructional half day. Below are the dismissal times for each of our schools on September 19th.

Dismissal Times:

High School - 10:40 am

Middle School - 11:15 am

Elementary 1 (Pinehurst/Big Tree) - 11:55 am

Elementary 2 (Cloverbank/Blasdell) - 12:35 pm

I would like to thank each family for your flexibility with this unique situation. As Superintendent, I do not diminish the impact that this may cause families in regards to students' care at home, however the projected traffic jams and potential for our buses to get locked in traffic with our youngest children on the bus outweighs the loss of a ½ day instructional time.