Port Washington-Saukville parents say bus-policy rollout abrupt as district sets paid city-bus fee

The Port Washington-Saukville School District on Wednesday outlined a new, digital process for student transportation and told parents some families will be charged for a city-bus option, a change that prompted multiple public complaints about communication and timing. The superintendent said the district set an August 15 cutoff for guaranteed busing and that “As of August 15, 859 families or individual students had signed up for busing on that digital app.”

Why it matters: Parents said the shift affects work schedules, childcare and household budgets with little time to plan before school starts. The district and its contractor, Johnson Bus, said the changes aim to restore pre-pandemic eligibility rules and clarify long-standing inconsistencies in who received stops and paid services.

District officials traced the change to problems with phone-based registration and uneven eligibility enforcement under the contractor. Superintendent (unnamed in the transcript) described a timeline of meetings and decisions going back to March: digital boundaries and registration were adopted, the district took over eligibility determination and requested Johnson Bus stop collecting payments directly from families. The superintendent said district staff…