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Port Washington-Saukville parents say bus-policy rollout abrupt as district sets paid city-bus fee
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Summary
The district and contractor Johnson Bus moved this summer to a digital registration and a tiered busing policy that includes a $250-per-semester paid city-bus option for some families; parents at the board meeting said the change was abrupt and created financial and logistical hardship.
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 asked families to register by August 15 so routes could be set for the first day of school.
Under the policy described at the meeting, families who live between one and two miles from their assigned school may buy into a paid city-bus service at $250 per student, per semester; families living under one mile were initially told they would not be provided busing but some who registered were later offered a paid option. The superintendent said 90 of the 859 registrants “qualified for the paid city bus service of a mile between a mile and 2 miles, and 34 of the 859 did not qualify because they were less than 1 mile away from their choice home boundary schools.”
District officials said they are pursuing Department of Public Instruction (DPI) reimbursement for students bussed over two miles and that the district will invoice families for paid city-bus participation and accept hardship exemption requests to the superintendent for families on free-and-reduced-price meal programs.
Ken Jones, vice president of Johnson Bus, told the board the contractor currently has “a driver for every seat” and described recruiting incentives including sign-on and referral bonuses up to $2,000. He also confirmed Johnson Bus would contact families with route information beginning Wednesday, August 27, at 2 p.m., and said the contractor would use drivers and staff calling families to relay routes.
Parents at the meeting said the timeline and communications were inadequate. Tori Meyer, who gave her address for the record, told the board, “The rollout of this bus plan was very abrupt and complete and unclear, and even tonight, it has changed.” Megan Hoffman said she received no district notice before August and described being told Johnson had not received the student’s name: “The communication for this has just been appalling.” Carrie Wickers, whose daughter has special needs, said she and many neighbors are living paycheck to paycheck and that the $250 fee has immediate effects: “$250 may not seem like a lot, but $250 is now school fees I cannot pay. It is school supplies I cannot buy.”
District staff and several board members noted a history of inconsistent practices by phone-based registration, and that Johnson Bus previously absorbed tens of thousands of dollars when the company billed families and did not collect payments. The superintendent gave figures from past years showing significant losses by Johnson Bus when city-bus invoices were not paid; the district said it will now manage billing directly.
What happened procedurally: The district set a digital registration cutoff of August 15 to guarantee busing for the first day of school; it communicated an option for families to pay for the city-bus service and to request hardship exemptions to the superintendent. Johnson Bus planned route notifications to families on August 27 and first-semester payments due by September 5. The board had earlier, in June, approved providing individual transportation contracts for some parochial students.
What’s next: District staff said they will continue to accept registrations after August 15 but cannot guarantee service on the first day; they will evaluate additional route requests on an ongoing basis. Families who believe they face financial hardship were instructed to request an exemption from the superintendent. The district and Johnson Bus said they will continue to adjust routes and staffing, and the contractor said it would continue recruiting drivers if demand increases.
Ending note: Several parents urged the board to reconsider the timeline and communications; board members said they would monitor the roll out and billing but also emphasized the district’s aim to restore consistent eligibility and to align practices with DPI reimbursement rules.
