Second page staff spacing in PARTS

When creating parts from a score (in my case, a 4-part string quartet), it is seemingly impossible to set the desired spacing between staves on the 2nd page. With only a few lines of music for that page, the default spacing is very wide.

Adding spacers often seems to "jolt" the spacing back to minimum (to be adjusted from there), but in several attempts with multiple scores the spacing from the FIRST TO SECOND line on p. 2 remains huge, and will not adjust down even with the addition of a spacer.

The parts are basically unusable with this spacing--the eye shouldn't have to jump this far. Is there something I can do to resolve the issue?

Thanks!