Request for Bus Stop Implementation for Schroeder Road Area Students

Overview of Milele Chikasa Anana Elementary School: 

Student population approximately 500 students. The school enrolls over 66% economically disadvantaged students. 

 Anana Elementary school did worse in math and worse in reading in the metric compared across the state. Madison Metropolitan School District: Student-Teacher Ratio: 12:1; Number of Schools: 54; Number of Students: 25,237.

Subject: Request for Bus Stop Implementation for Schroeder Rd. Area Students.

 Dear School Board Members, I am writing to you today to advocate for an implementation of a traditional school bus stop for students residing along Schroeder Road, specifically those from the Tailor Place and Preserve West/Kessel Court complexes for future school years. At Anana Elementary, we serve approximately 500 students, most of whom live within 2 miles of the school. We currently provide bus transportation for about 100 students, based on MMSD’s guidelines of providing transportation for students living 1.5 miles away. Within the last few years, new apartment buildings with low-income subsidized housing have been built 1.1 miles away from Anana along a hazardous road that is making it difficult for students to arrive safely to school. There are approximately 45 students living in the Tailor Place and Kessel Court apartments that could benefit from having a bus stop. According to Becky Brickert, the former case manager for the Road Home serving families at Tailor Place, most families in these apartments live below the poverty line, meeting requirements for low or fixed-income housing, with some units designated as transitional housing to prevent homelessness. These apartments are home to 32 African American, 6 LatinX, and 5 White students. Alarmingly, 32 of these students are on the chronic absenteeism list and/or are habitually truant. Families consistently identify not wanting their young children walking by themselves and concerns about weather conditions as significant barriers to school attendance. Previously, we have submitted a plea to the board for a bus stop to be added along Schroeder Rd for these students, but were unsuccessful with our advocacy. As a creative solution to addressing the attendance and safety concerns, Anana implemented a walking school bus for the 2024-2025 school year to specifically address the attendance concerns coming from students living at the apartments along Schroeder Rd. While we appreciate the efforts made through the Walking School Bus initiative, the experience has highlighted significant challenges and safety concerns that necessitate a more sustainable transportation solution for our students. The Walking School Bus was initiated in September 2024 to support students within walking distance to have supervision on their walk to school. The walking bus picked up students at the same time everyday which helped to establish a routine with the students who participated. The walking school bus had two stops, one at Schroeder Rd and Schroeder Ct, and one at Kessel Ct and Schroeder Rd. Initially, it saw consistent participation, with 5-15 students joining daily, and positively impacted student attendance, with several previously truant students achieving 100% attendance in the early months of the program. In fact for 9 out of 12 regularly participating students, attendance rates increased from previous years, some with a 5-15% increase to their attendance rate. However, as the weather turned colder in December, the effectiveness of the Walking School Bus significantly diminished. Participation dropped drastically, and students who had previously maintained excellent attendance began arriving late or becoming truant again due to the harsh temperatures. Even when the temperatures were in the negatives with low wind chills, we showed up to walk students, sometimes only showing up for a single student who was waiting for us. Students expressed their discomfort: on one day where the temperature was almost negative 32 with the windchill, one student commented: "why don’t we have a bus, I want people from downtown to see how cold it is for us to walk." Despite providing warm winter gear, the prolonged exposure (almost 35 minutes) in negative temperatures and significant wind chills severely impacted the students. Safety has emerged as a paramount concern. Students regularly had to cross a very busy street, Schroeder Road, which supporting staff identified as dangerous, even with adult supervision. Schroeder Road is dimly lit when students travel to school and is a very high-traffic area at both arrival and dismissal times. With the opening of Exact Sciences off Rayovac Drive, hundreds of cars commute to work, and while the speed limit is 30 MPH, we regularly witness traffic speeding at 40 MPH or greater. Students are also expected to walk past Kwik Trip, which is always busy during the morning due to commuters stopping for gas or breakfast and coming in and out quickly. The walking school bus has to cross two entrances to Kwik Trip on their 1.1 mile walk to school. Furthermore, the crosswalk from Schroeder Rd onto Hathaway Dr has lights that alert traffic of crossing pedestrians, which were frequently burnt out. Staff would call the city to report the lights being out and it was always a question of the students if today was going to be a day when the lights were working. On several occasions when the lights were working, traffic failed to stop for the walking school bus. This creates unsafe crossing conditions when even the traffic isn’t yielding to the students crossing the busy road. Staff always wear a neon orange vest and would sometimes have to wave at traffic in order for them to stop for the students to cross the road. Given that 34 of these students are less than 8 years old, and none older than 10, it seems irresponsible to have them walking to school by themselves, often with young siblings (as young as 3 years old) in tow, without adult supervision. Because they are so young, students often play and are unaware of the hazardous traffic conditions, sometimes walking in the road, crossing outside crosswalks, and making unnecessary stops, causing tardiness. During colder months, sidewalks were often iced over, leading to students slipping and falling, and sustaining injuries. As one 5th grader AG starkly put it, "It won’t be good if we fall and break a bone. It would be on you guys." As the weather becomes colder, icier, and more hazardous, our families are apprehensive about sending their young children to school without provided transportation, potentially leading to unexcused absences and contributing to habitual truancy. Even with the walking school bus as an option, students would opt to come to school later once the temperature had warmed up, causing them to be tardy to school sometimes by a few hours. The Walking School Bus also placed a considerable burden on our dedicated staff. Five staff members regularly committed their time, some walking 2-4 days of the week. Community volunteers initially supported the effort, but a recent incident involving a student fight led to the social worker discontinuing community assistance due to liability concerns. This highlights the unsustainability of relying heavily on staff and volunteers for this critical function. Student feedback consistently echoed these concerns: ● Dislikes: The long distance, early wake-up times, walking in cold/rainy weather, crossing busy streets, and student conflicts. ● Desired Changes: Shorter distances, a bus option for bad weather days, and not having to wake up so early. As 4th grader JB stated, "I would change that we had a bus and we didn’t have to walk." When our students are arriving tardy, they miss a crucial part of their academic day, including daily Crew meetings and core instructional blocks like literacy and math. Our current system often supports White families in avoiding habitual truancy while creating barriers for our Students of Color due to inequitable access and resources to meet attendance goals. Parents have expressed to staff when questioned about barriers in getting their kids to school that they are working 2nd or 3rd shifts or have second jobs and find it difficult to find creative solutions to get their children to school on time. We believe they should not have to get creative about transportation; instead, the school district should remove this barrier. Keeping MMSD’s strategic framework in mind, we want to ensure all African American students thrive at school, and to do that, we need to guarantee a safe, timely, equitable option to get to school on time with their peers. There is a bus stop for middle school students that picks up at 8:17am at Schroeder Rd and Saybrook Rd. Based on our assessment, allowing our elementary students to get on the bus, which is only a 2-5 minute walk from the complexes, is the most viable and safest solution. The bus then travels to Hathaway Dr and Piping Rock Rd and picks up the next round of middle school students at 8:20am. If Anana elementary students are provided with the opportunity to get on the bus and off at Hathaway Dr, they would be able to walk up the hill to Anana by 8:25am: ensuring they are at school on time, and ensuring they have arrived protected from the hazardous road conditions and harsh weather conditions. We have identified a potential total of 27 elementary students who would utilize this bus stop. This number is well within the capacity of a standard school bus (72 students). It is also important to note that 25 out of these 27 students are students of color. Providing a bus stop would address significant equity concerns for these families. Implementing a bus stop would provide: ● Enhanced Safety: Eliminating the need for students to walk long distances in dangerous conditions or cross busy intersections. MMSD guidelines identify "unusually hazardous zones" as a condition for transportation, and Schroeder Road clearly meets this criterion. ● Consistent Attendance: Ensuring students arrive on time regardless of weather, preventing the truancy issues observed in colder months. ● Reduced Burden: Alleviating the significant time commitment and liability concerns for our staff and volunteers. ● Equity: Providing reliable transportation for all students, especially those whose families face transportation barriers, aligning with MMSD's strategic framework to ensure all African American students thrive. Anana would like to propose allowing our elementary aged students the opportunity to join an existing route to transport our students, both present and future, living in these apartment complexes. As we continue to operate with our equity vision at the center of our work, we realize the discrepancy for our students receiving equitable access to safe transportation. We believe that providing a dedicated bus stop is a crucial step towards ensuring the safety, well-being, and consistent academic success of our students from the Schroeder Road area. We would love to partner with you as we support our students in accessing the rigorous core instruction that we provide at Anana. We trust that you will consider the safety of our traditionally marginalized students as a priority so that we can continue to promise high levels of student achievement for all of our students. We urge the School Board to consider this proposal with the utmost urgency. We are available to discuss this matter further at your earliest convenience. Thank you for your time and consideration. 

Sincerely, Anana Elementary School