BROOKFIELD, Wis. — The Waukesha School District, where a bus driver shortage is not only impacting families at public schools, but private schools are feeling the impact as well.
"It just feels like they don't really care about the burden they are putting on the families." St. John Vianney mother Meredyth Hunn explains.
The bus driver shortage in Waukesha has been tough on parents like Hunn since the start of the 2023 school year. However, many parents, like Hunn, quickly found plans when routes were disrupted.
"We figured out a carpool with some neighbors. Luckily, we were able to put something in place, so we aren't doing every drop-off and every pick up, but it still been a lot of work on our end."
Her four-year-old son Phoenix attends K-4 at St. John Vianney Catholic School in Brookfield. He only rode the bus a handful of times before the route was changed. On August 29, St. Johns sent an email to parents saying, "This effectively cancels our route.”
Hunn tells TMJ4 that she was worried about her son missing school every day.
"The fact that I have an educational institution telling me I should be okay with sending my kid late to school every single day. I am absolutely shocked that is something I am being told by a school."
She says the communication hasn't been good between the Waukesha District and St. Johns.
"I've had to reach out to every single time for an update and I'm not getting responses from people in the district."
According to the district, “The Transportation Department communicates directly with the school administration regarding the route status for St. John Vianney. Since school started, the SJV route has remained the same (late bus).
The district continues to communicate daily with First Student, and weekly email updates are sent through our messenger system, which not all private school families are part of. To ensure all families have access to the weekly message, they are posted to the district website, where they can also monitor the transportation dashboard for changes. These resources have been communicated to the private schools to share with their families.”
St. John's says they are "working proactively with our families to help them navigate the sometimes-unpredictable access to bus transportation.”
As far as the future goes for bussing, Hunn has an idea.
"I would like to see them rotate the routes that are affected so that certain families aren't bearing the entire burden from this problem."
According to the Waukesha School District, as of September 5th, there were eleven routes in need of drivers. The SDW transportation dashboard shows that they have added four drivers.
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