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Board adopts transportation and cell‑phone policies; asks for clearer referendum survey graphics and wording
Summary
Trustees adopted a hazardous transportation policy that eliminates elementary shuttle transfers in favor of direct routes, and a cell‑phone policy aligned with a new state law that bans student phone use during instructional time (bell‑to‑bell through middle school). The board also asked staff to rework referendum survey wording and graphics to clarify long‑term facility plans and remove a potentially confusing 4K finance footnote.
The Waunakee Community School District Board on March 9 approved two policy changes aimed at clarifying transportation and student device practices, and provided editorial direction on the district’s draft community referendum survey.
Transportation: The policy committee recommended implementing the district’s hazardous transportation plan for 2026–27. Under the plan, district staff will eliminate the historic elementary shuttle transfers that required some students to leave school early to ride a shuttle to a partner location; instead, students going to after‑school partner sites such as Inspire will be transported on direct bus routes from their home school to the partner site. Staff emphasized that no service is being removed; routing is changing to keep students in school for the full day and to provide direct transfers to partner sites. The board approved the transportation policy by voice vote and directed staff to begin proactive family communications about the new routing.
Cell‑phone policy: Trustees adopted a policy aligned with new state law that requires districts to restrict student access to communication devices during instructional time and to incorporate four statutory exceptions (instructional use by teachers, health needs, emergencies and individualized education plan accommodations). The district will keep a bell‑to‑bell restriction through eighth grade and an instructional‑time restriction at the high school while planning a fall stakeholder needs assessment for high‑school device practices. Tim noted that the policy also addresses smartwatches by allowing only clock‑face use unless a misuse is observed.
Referendum survey guidance: As staff walked trustees through the draft community survey on capital projects, board members asked for clearer visuals showing the district’s multi‑year capital plan and wanted the survey to frame athletic upgrades (team centers, locker rooms, turf) as bringing Waunakee facilities in line with peer districts rather than as luxury amenities. Trustees also asked staff to remove or clarify a footnote that linked the operational referendum question to the Get Kids Ready 4K program, saying the footnote could create confusion for community respondents. Staff agreed to revise the survey language and graphics and return a final draft for distribution planning.
What happens next: Staff will publish communications about transportation routing changes, implement the cell‑phone policy in line with state requirements, and work with the survey vendor to update visuals and wording before launching the community referendum survey in April.
