try some sitesettings caching

composer-changes.md

install: https://packagist.org/packages/tedivm/stash

initialize.php

<?php

$stash_options = array('path' => $app->config('base.path') .  DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . 'stash-cache'); 
$stash_driver = new \Stash\Driver\FileSystem($stash_options);
$app->pool = new \Stash\Pool($stash_driver);

error_log('before sitesettings: '.microtime(1));
$uri_public_root = $app->config('uri')['public']; 
$item = $app->pool->getItem('UserFrosting SiteSettings '.urlencode($uri_public_root));
if($item->isMiss())
	{
		//is not valid
		$item->set(new \UserFrosting\SiteSettings($setting_values, $setting_descriptions));
		$app->pool->save($item); 
	}else{ 
		//is valid
	}

$app->site = $item->get();
error_log('after  sitesettings: '.microtime(1));