The closure of a road has prompted the Wittenberg-Birnamwood School District to shift its bus routes and which elementary school they go to, and a recent letter to families informing them about the changes brought frustrated parents to the April 22 Wittenberg-Birnamwood School Board meeting.
Alissa Brown and Tina Strassburger live on Apple Lane in Hatley, and the closure of the intersection of Bass Lake Road near their homes has prompted the notice that their children would be bussed to Birnamwood Elementary-Middle School next year, although the children had previously been bussed to Wittenberg Elementary-Middle School. They noted that they brought their concerns forward and were told that there was an option to take their children to a pickup/dropoff point to proceed to Wittenberg, but the parents claimed neither of those spots were safe.
“My husband is gone in the mornings, and I don’t have anybody to help me with my kids,” Brown said. “I am currently a college student and I can’t just miss classes because my children miss a pickup point at the bus.”
Brown noted that she was told the buses taking a different way to pick up her children and take them to Wittenberg would add an additional 10 minutes on the drivers’ route. She told the board that it wasn’t fair to do this to an in-district family.
“We are in the district,” Brown said. “We pay district taxes. We expect transportation for our children.”
Brown said she had hoped to find a compromise by having the children go to their grandparents’ home on Hilly Acres Road, which would be along a bus route for the Wittenberg school, but was told that was not an option.
“We didn’t really have a say in any of this — the road closure, our children being forced to go to a pickup point or another school,” Brown said. “Our kids are still young, but they’ve established friendships. This is where we want our kids to go, but if we’re forced into either of these two options, we decided we would just pull the children and open-enroll them somewhere else.”
Strassburger was under the impression that everything was fine, because the road closure happened a year ago and there didn’t appear to be any problems, and then she received the district’s letter.
“Oftentimes, the buses are five minutes early to school, and they have to wait to be let in the door,” Strassburger said. “So what’s the deal with an extra 10 minutes to begin with?”
Superintendent Garrett Rogowski said he sympathized with the parents and that the situation they were in was unfair.
“I think they’re right,” Rogowski said. “I think that they were given kind of a raw deal regarding this road closure. Had that never happened, we would not be having this conversation today.”
Rogowski said the letter was sent out to give families six months’ notice about the change. He said the matter went before the district’s transportation committee but not to the full school board. He noted that most of the homes north of state Highway 29 in Hatley are designated for the Birnamwood school already, so it logistically made sense to save time for bus drivers by sending the students on Apple Lane to that school.
Rogowski noted that the exception for Apple Lane had been established prior to his becoming superintendent 15 years ago.
Paul Yaeger, the district’s transportation director, said the road closure in summer 2023 has forced an additional 20 minutes of time one-way taking a longer way to pick up children on Apple Lane and take them to the Wittenberg school, but the district was willing to try it for this school year. However, it required some of the students to get on the bus 20 minutes earlier than they had to before.
“The 20 minutes doesn’t just affect one family,” Yaeger said. “We’re picking up kids earlier in the dark, and that’s one of the things we don’t like.”
The parents pointed out that Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School students on Apple Lane are picked up, go to the Birnamwood school and then down to the school but get there on time. Yaeger noted the high school has a later start time than the elementary schools.
Rogowski said it’s possible the board might get involved with the issue and try to figure out a better solution, but because the matter wasn’t on the April agenda, the board couldn’t make a decision then.
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
Parents frustrated about school bus route change
