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Teachers report praise for kickoff, raise persistent busing and PD concerns to school board
Summary
The Waunakee Teachers Association thanked the district for schedule changes and the kickoff speaker, but told the board continuing bus routing and communication errors and concerns about repeated trauma-informed PD should be addressed.
At the Sept. 8 board meeting, Waunakee Teachers Association representatives told the board they appreciated the district’s split work day and kickoff events but raised recurring concerns about student transportation and professional development.
Kristine Mokowski, who identified herself as a kindergarten teacher at Prairie, said busing problems “are consistently happening” and described communication gaps between transportation leadership and school buildings. “Students get dropped off in wrong places at times,” she said, adding that delayed or unclear notifications to staff and parents are especially harmful for younger learners.
Connie Frey, who also teaches kindergarten at Prairie and spoke with Mokowski, said staff asked the district to continue reporting recurring route changes, supervision gaps and drop-off errors so the administration can follow up. “We understand that it is out of your control, but ... it's really important for us to continue to communicate,” Frey said.
Teachers also raised professional-development concerns. Mokowski said some staff felt the CISA trauma-informed classroom-management training repeated material and was not always relevant or fresh; she asked the district to review PD relevance and participation.
Board members thanked the WTA representatives for the feedback and for noting what worked well: the split workday, the inspirational kickoff speaker and opportunities for teacher collaboration during the welcome activities. The board offered to take the transportation and PD items back to administration for follow-up.
Why it matters: Transportation errors can affect student safety and attendance; teachers asked the district to track recurring problems and improve communication. The PD concern reflects teachers’ desire that district training be practical, differentiated and not unnecessarily repetitive.
Next steps: WTA asked the board to continue reporting and tracking busing incidents and to review PD offerings for relevance; administrators agreed to follow up with details and possible changes.
