District sticks with contract school buses

WAUPACA – It was decided at a recent Waupaca school board meeting that the district will not pursue developing a district-owned bussing system.
At a Sept. 23 board meeting, information and estimates were shared involving the possibility of the district owning their own transportation and bussing system.
The start of the school year produced bussing issues that drove the decision to look into estimates to possibly be able to take on the transportation for the district.
Austin Moore, the director of business in the district, presented the numbers they had gathered so far, including the cost of $150,000 per bus and about a million dollars that would be needed to buy property and build a garage, as well as the cost of maintaining the busses and the hiring of staff and drivers.
The Waupaca school district has 21 morning and afternoon routes, as well as co-curricular activities at the middle school and high school that would also need to be taken into consideration for building a new bussing service.

Mark Flaten, the district administrator, said after that meeting they were able to sit down with representatives from Go Riteway to further express their concerns about the current state of bussing.
“We met directly with our transportation provider, we clearly communicated our expectations and we are happy to report that our bussing has improved for our co-curricular activities,” Flaten said at the Oct. 14 meeting.
Flaten said the 21 morning and afternoon routes are running smoothly and the co-curricular activity busses, outside of a couple of hiccups, have also been running consistently.
After discussing some of the issues the district was having with other superintendents he found that the issues that they were running into are not unique and that, in fact, surrounding districts have similar issues, Flaten said.
At the Sept. 23 meeting Moore said the biggest obstacle they have is the lack of drivers for all of the routes and co-curricular activities.
Flaten said the start of a school year generally is going to have some issues arise; however, he plans to continue to leave the lines of communications open with Go Riteway to ensure that the transportation needs of the district continue to be met.
Flaten said they have been very responsive and have been able to clear up issues they encountered early on in the school year.
Flaten said at this time the district has no plans to to own their own bussing system, and they also do not intend to reopen the five-year contract they signed last spring with Go Riteway.
Flaten stressed that when the idea of rebuilding the bussing system came up at the Sept. 23 meeting that it was purely informational.