Waunakee policy committee considers eliminating elementary shuttles, reallocating three middle/high routes

Steve, speaking for district administration, outlined a plan to keep an "unusually hazardous transportation plan" already approved by the board and to reconfigure elementary routing so shuttles between schools would end and each elementary would instead operate two dedicated routes — a shorter in-town route and a longer route outside the village. "We're not looking for a decision today," Steve said, but he asked the committee for direction and to forward summer-school routing to the full board.

Why it matters: staff said implementing the hazardous-transportation plan would eliminate bus transportation for 251 middle-school students and free three 5–12 routes that could be reallocated to serve K–4 students in longer single-run routes. Administrators argued the change would stop early dismissals for shuttle transfers and reduce the administrative burden of managing hundreds of variable shuttle assignments.

Administrators and principals described student-safety and instructional impacts tied to the shuttle model. "When you do have 10 minutes cut off of that end of the day, that's 10 minutes of instruction almost an hour per week," Sheila, an elementary administrator, said, adding that very young children transferring between buses increase safety and supervision challenges. Building administrators said tracking shuttle assignments in spreadsheets is time-consuming and raises the risk of mistakes.

Staff suggested ways to preserve service while reducing disruption: keep the parental choice to send a child to an off-site after-school program (for example, one administrator described a $125 shuttle to a private daycare), but redesign routes so a student rides a single bus directly to the selected drop-off. Steve said a phased approach is feasible and recommended a March workshop and staged rollouts so families receive advance notice; he said the district would not remove services for families who had already chosen locations for the coming school year without warning.

Other operational points: the district has implemented a bus-tracking app this year but said it cannot confirm whether an individual student is on a vehicle; staff discussed piloting a scan-on/scan-off system to verify student boarding. The committee also discussed open-enrollment students who are dropped at boundary points and noted inter-district written agreements would be needed to provide consistent cross-district service.

Next steps and actions: the committee asked staff to present summer-school routing to the full board that evening and to schedule a March workshop to refine a staged timetable for changes in 2026–27 and beyond. A committee motion to move the summer-school bus alternative plan to the full board passed; the meeting adjourned after the committee scheduled a March 3 workshop at 7:30 a.m.

The district cited state law in explaining eligibility: "State law requires school boards to provide transportation if a family lives 2 or more miles away," Steve said; the transcript does not identify the specific statute. The plan and any policy changes will require formal board action and additional communication to families before implementation.