QUAKERTOWN, Pa. — With an eye on boosting efficiency and cutting costs, Quakertown Community School District is making changes to centralize its transportation service.

The crux of the new plan is the use of hub locations in transporting private and charter school students.

Starting with the 2014-15 school year, all private and charter school students that the district is responsible for transporting will be picked up with public school students. When they arrive at the hub locations, which will be at district schools, the private and charter school students will transfer to another bus to be taken to their schools.

District Superintendent William Harner explained in a letter to parents that the private and charter school students "will be grouped with the public school routes that provide the most efficient use of resources while maintaining the shortest travel time possible."

The Quakertown Community School District also recently changed its bell schedule by flipping middle and high school start times.

Harner said that the new hub transportation plan uses a method that is "common in other school districts and an important cost-saving measure."

The district's transportation service is provided by a longtime contractor in the area, Levy School Bus Co.