Wausau board approves First Student as transportation partner for 2025-26

The Wausau School District board voted Dec. 9 to approve First Student as the district transportation partner beginning with the 2025-26 school year.

Josh Foro, who led the district s RFP process, told the board the district received eight bids and interviewed three finalists. First Student scored highest on a rubric that gave significant weight to price and also assessed staffing, support and presentation. Foro said First Student has proposed steps to address prior service problems, including adding office staff and standby drivers, rolling out a parent feedback portal and conducting ongoing customer-service surveys.

Why it matters: transportation costs run about $3.1 $3.2 million annually for routes, and the district operates more than 200 daily routes and averages 170 monthly extracurricular trips. Board members emphasized that price was important but said they had also scrutinized service history and require performance monitoring.

Board action: the board moved to approve First Student and directed administration to bring the contract forward for signature. Foro said the district put forward a five-year proposal; the board was told it would retain options to exit the contract if performance is unsatisfactory. The motion passed by voice vote.

What remains: Foro said the parties expect to finalize contract details, including whether a dedicated customer-service staff position would be a shared-cost model; First Student indicated willingness to add the position, but the cost-sharing arrangement remains to be settled. The district also expects to receive monthly performance metrics before the holidays, showing cancellations, missed routes and other service measures.

Next steps: the board authorized administration to finalize the contract and return it for signature and oversight; the district will monitor monthly metrics and the new feedback portal to assess ongoing performance.