The Shawano School District is overhauling their busing system.
The district has agreed to a new contract with Kobussen Buses LTD., that will begin next school year. The move will result in a single- route system. School Board President Tyler Schmidt explained what this means.
“So if ‘bus 2’ goes out and they pick up along X, Y, or Z road, everybody who is going to one of our schools that’s on that bus route will be on the same bus,” Schmidt said.
This will put students of all grades on buses together. Schmidt said they will work with Kobussen on how to best handle that.
“You know we’ve talked about that, there wasn’t a real major concern on that from the board,” Schmidt said. “That’s all up in the air, do we put the little kids in the front seat and older kids in the back or older kids in the front and little [kids in the back].”
“How many high schoolers honestly ride the bus,” he added.
As for the advantage of going to a single-route.
“We can now get all of our schools to start pretty close to the same time,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt anticipates elementary start times staying the same with middle school and high school more than likely changing timings.
Kobussen will be taking over for Johnson School Bus Service who currently serves the Shawano School District.
Schmidt said both companies submitted pricing proposals for both single route and dual route systems. The dual-route is actually more cost effective but Schmidt said the district was prepared to make a “systematic change” to the their approach.