Athens reduces one bus route this year
School board concerned about proposed early pickup at Maple Grove
The Athens Board of Education on Monday approved the bus contract with Fischer Transportation for the 2023-24 school year that includes one less bus route each day to save the school district nearly $40,000 this year.
Athens School District added one bus route for a total of nine in the 202122 school year after acquiring Maple Grove Charter School in Hamburg. The school district will return this school year to having eight school bus routes, as part of the school district’s cuts in its transportation budget.
Mary Kay Adams, operations manager at Fischer Transportation, attended Monday’s school board meeting. She said the bus company’s original proposed busing plan was to have a bus driver pick up 40 Maple Grove students at 2:40 p.m., which is 20 minutes before the Maple Grove school day ends, so she could arrive at St. Anthony de Padua Catholic School in Athens at 3 p.m. to pick up students.
Adams said the bus driver would then arrive at Athens Elementary School at 3:10 pm. to pick up students, before driving to Athens middle/high school at 3:23 p.m. to pick up students. Under the original proposed busing schedule, the Maple Grove students who were picked up at 2:40 p.m. in Hamburg would then need to continue their long wait time before whichever bus they are transferred to in Athens travels to Hamburg to drop off the students at their homes.
Robin Hanson, Maple Grove Charter School principal, expressed her concern about the 40 students losing 20 minutes of valuable instruction time at the end of each school day. She told Adams to find a way to have the bus driver pick up these students as close to 3 p.m. as possible. Athens School Board members shared Hanson’s concern.
Some of the 40 Maple Grove students who are picked up early from school live in Athens, where they will be dropped off so they can walk home. School board members are concerned with the remaining students who are picked up early from Maple Grove Charter School needing to ride the bus for over an hour while it travels from Hamburg to Athens to pick up students from three schools in the village, before the bus returns to Hamburg to drop off students at their homes. Andrea Sheridan, Athens schools superintendent, plans to work with Adamski on whether it’s more feasible to transfer students off the bus that is picking them up early at Maple Grove School onto other buses at either Athens Elementary or Athens middle/ high school. Juli Gauerkes-Peter, Athens middle/high school principal, said she is willing to release students in last hour study hall early as bus patrols to ensure students on the Maple Grove bus are being transferred in a timely manner onto other buses.
Athens School District is contracted with Fischer Transportation to pay $550,758 during the 2023-24 school year, which is a decrease of $39,346 for having one less bus route. Sheridan said now the school district will receive the bus fuel bills, instead of the bus company, in order to decrease the school district’s transportation costs.
In other news:
Sheridan said the fitness center inside the middle/high school remains closed to the public until the school district finishes the process of assessing which equipment needs to be replaced for safety reasons.
She said the school district could start charging residents a nominal fee to use the fitness center. Sheridan also said residents might be given a key fob to access the fitness center in the future.
The school district’s facilities and operations committee will begin meeting in September to set a fee schedule for the public to use the school district’s facilities. This is a way for Athens School District to earn revenue to offset its expenditures in the future.
Athens School District is hiring Cari Markman as an additional kindergarten teacher this school year. She has previously worked as an instructional aide at Athens Elementary School. There will be 31 kindergartners at Athens Elementary School this fall, which will be broken up into two classrooms taught by Cindy Kruger and Markman.
The school district has amended Adam Triebold’s teaching contract to compensate him for completing his master’s degree this summer. Triebold teaches vocal music in the Athens School District.
Beth Steinke, Athens School District business office manager, presented the 2022-23 school year budget revisions. She said the school district’s general fund, which pays for teacher’s salaries and benefits, is projected to have a negative balance of $897,459 at the end of 2023 before the school district starts receiving the operational referendum money in 2024.
Steinke said it’s very important for the school district to rebuild its general fund in the future. She was happy to report that Athens School District will not need to short term borrow money anymore, now that voters approved the operational referendum in April. She said the school district has $10,000 left in federal ESSER money which will go toward the $30,000 in new Chromebooks for students this school year.
School board members and Sheridan met in closed session under Wisconsin Statute 19.85 (1) (c) (f) for the purpose of considering employment, compensation, performance evaluations and financial, medical, social or personal information (of specific persons which if discussed in public) would have a substantial adverse effect upon the person’s reputation.
School board members present included Tim Krueger, Jessica Frahm, Tucker Diethelm, Shanon Peel and Tom “Chummo” Ellenbecker. School board members Steve Janke and Angie Servi did not attend Monday’s meeting. The school board did not take action in closed session.
