Nearly five years ago, a Unit 5 parent, Ed, went to a school board meeting to oppose the changing of school times as a solution to a transportation issue. Ed said at the time parents were told that this decision would be data driven and alternate solutions would be explored, based on what was found.
“My child was then in kindergarten and is now in Jr. High, regularly late for school and we’ve never seen any of that data around both decisions. During that same period of time as a result of the lack of alternative solutions the contract for First Student was extended. Now I could go on and on about busses, but that’s only a symptom of a much larger problem. Which is talent, retention, acquisition,” said Ed at a school board meeting on Wednesday, Oct. 27.
According to Ed, at his child’s parent-teacher conference the week previous to the board meeting he was told by a member of the faculty at that school that they were down a number of full-time faculty staff including: full-time teachers, admin staff, subs, social workers, guidance counselors and, in Ed’s opinion ‘worst of all’, security.
“In math, for example, my child gets taught by a teacher for half the period and works quietly while a teacher teaches another group of students for the second half of the period,” said Ed, a Unit 5 parent.
“‘Why am I here?’ Other than to complain, I’m here to ask all of you to be creative in addressing these shortages. I’m offering to volunteer my time and energy to help.” said Ed, addressing the school board. “In 2021, especially in a tight labor market, we must think differently about how we attract and retain talent. I’m not going to be naïve, I know this is a problem that plagues all school districts, but I also know we can no longer lean on what we have don in the past.”
Ed said he is asking for transparency into how bad these problems really are and what the school district is doing to fix them.
“I would advocate that we look through these culture board issues and focus on the things that we should really be talking about in the upcoming election,” said Ed.
Superintendent Kristen Weikle told Cities, in a Roundtable, the shortages were bad five years ago, but this current shortage is worse than that.
“We are in a better position than a lot of districts,” said Weikle. “I know one large district not too far form the Tri-County area that is just not running routes. They’ve told parents, ‘Look it’s on you to get your child to school. We know we can’t run “X” number of routes so if your child can’t get to school we will send work home.’ Unit 5 is doing everything we can. I believe First Student is too. They train bus drivers on a regular basis.”
Cities reached out to First Student for comment.
Another parent, Nikki Eisfelder, attended the school board meeting on the issue and expressed concerns about her child being ‘missing.’
“My 10 year old takes the bus from Kingsley to our home. Four times… she’s missing,” said Eisfelder. “Your kid is missing… when someone takes your kid from a place that they are supposed to be and takes them somewhere else… I found her because we had to get her a cell phone and I feel fortunate that I have the ability to get my kid a cellphone, but the only way I know where she is when it’s time for her to be home is because I can track.”
On one occasion Eisfelder tracked her daughter in Ironwood and the family lives on the east side.
“She’s far, she doesn’t know how to get a hold of me. I’ve called First Student who says, ‘we don’t know where that bus is,’ or ‘that bus was helping another route, they should have told you,’ well they didn’t tell us,” said Eisfelder.
“I’m asking for communication. When she does get on a bus 30-40 minutes later she’s sitting four to a seat. So our kids have to be three feet apart in a classroom and not have snacks and not have breaks, but on the busses it’s okay to be four to a seat,” said Eisfelder. “Kingsley Jr High tells me ‘we don’t have anything to do with the buses,’ First Student says ‘we’re short we’re small we’re understaffed.’ I understand but the solution can’t be our kids are 45 minutes late and sitting four to a seat.”
