Siren, Dodgeville, Gillett and Winter school districts could all dissolve without increasing operational revenue.
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After years of struggling with declining enrollment, Alverno College changed its recruitment strategy with a renewed focus on athletics — and it’s starting to work.
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School districts nationwide are assessing how the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education (ED), including workforce cuts and interagency agreements (IAAs), could affect school transportation service and funding. While full closure requires full congressional approval, which hadn’t occurred at this publication, a majority of its core duties have been reassigned to other federal agencies.
Civil rights and student privacy functions have moved to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), while special education functions tied to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) have shifted in part to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Prior to the formation of ED by Congress in 1979, the precursor to IDEA, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, as well as other federal education initiatives operated within the Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
Rosalyn Vann-Jackson, the chief support services officer for Broken Arrow Public Schools in Oklahoma and NAPT Region 4 director, said the impact is difficult to predict. But it could disrupt continuity of services and increase existing challenges.
Transportation as a related service under IDEA is already severely underfunded, she said, even as the number of students requiring specialized transportation continues to increase locally and nationally while specialized transportation gets expensive.
The IAAs “may cause us to not focus on ramping up that service that is needed in an existing challenge we have in funding,” Vann-Jackson said, adding the same is true of the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which continues to operate within ED.
School transportation is a significant indicator of educational outcomes regarding equity for students, Vann-Jackson noted, adding “attendance is critical for our families in light of the economy and challenges we are experiencing.
While there may be a loss of institutional knowledge, there are opportunities through a new set of eyes and lens to those challenges and a greater opportunity to engage industry experts, Vann-Jackson said.
Industry experts Vann-Jackson cites include School Transportation News’ Transporting Students with Disabilities & Special Needs conference, the National Association for Pupil Transportation, the National School Transportation Association, and the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services.
“Many of these organizations have political or organizational advocacy committees tied into legislative efforts at the federal level,” she said, noting the best approach for districts is to stay engaged and diplomatically voice concerns.
Special education attorney Julie Weatherly observed it is difficult to assess the impact moving the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) to the DOJ will have on students with disabilities, given significant staffing reductions as well as the closure of seven OCR regional offices with no specific plans as to how the changes will work.
“While OCR has allowed for significant backlogs in complaint resolution to accumulate over time, my experience working with OCR in the Section 504 complaint process has traditionally involved a more administrative and collaborative approach focused on resolution and remedies for a specific student, rather than the more litigious and broader approach often utilized by DOJ,” said Weatherly, who keynotes next month’s TSD Conference.
She emphasized transportation departments serving students with disabilities may face DOJ investigative procedures examining systemic violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 complaints referred by OCR and filed more like a class-action lawsuit.
“DOJ traditionally will ask for all kinds of district-wide information through deposition-style interviews, extensive records, data review requests and on-site visits and observations during its investigations with a much more heavy-handed approach,” she explained. “Transportation departments should conduct internal audits of their practices, policies and procedures regarding transportation of students with disabilities to ensure they are aligned with the nondiscrimination requirements of the ADA and Section 504.”
Departments should be prepared to respond to student and staff safety issues, discipline, appropriate supervision, student and staff-based bullying and harassment, service animal transportation, and the provision of equitable, timely, and appropriate and required accommodations and transportation services to students with disabilities in accordance with their IEPs and 504 plans, she added.
“They also need to ensure documentation of compliant practices, policies and procedures and implementation thereof exists and is ready if ever requested,”
Weatherly said, sharing that legal counsel should be sought to assist in an internal review as well as if an OCR complaint is filed in order to prepare for addressing and responding appropriately to DOJ’s enforcement process.
Glenna Wright-Gallo, a former assistant secretary of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services at ED and current vice president of strategic research and policy for adaptive technologies provider Everway, noted while the entitlement doesn’t change, the June 2026 IAA moving IDEA Parts B, C, and D operations from ED’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services (OSERS) to HHS introduces “real friction risk on the administrative side.”
Under the IAA, HHS is supporting specified IDEA administrative functions including grant administration, monitoring-related work, data functions and fund drawdowns, she noted.
“ED retains statutory authority and ultimate responsibility for IDEA oversight, policy and enforcement functions,” Wright-Gallo added. “For districts, that means a new point of contact and a new system learning curve at exactly the point where transportation directors need fast answers on allowable uses, reimbursement timing and compliance questions.”
There is recent precedent for this kind of disruption. The Career and Technical Education and adult education programs Perkins V and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Youth Program Title II moved to the Department of Labor (DOL) in the first pilot IAA in May 2025 and again when Every Student Succeeds Act Title I, Title II-A, and Title IV-A followed in November 2025, Wright-Gallo noted.
“Rural school leaders reported receiving funds roughly two months late because DOL’s grant system did not recognize state education agencies’ existing bank accounts, which was a basic onboarding failure,” she added. “That same category of risk applies to the fiscal year 2027 transition of IDEA grants into HHS’ GrantSolutions and Payment Management System. Fiscal year 2026 awards remain in ED’s G5 system for now, so delays are not imminent.”
She noted three compounding factors raise the odds of delay or confusion, including reduced technical assistance capacity, mixed federal messaging and staffing shortages, including among school bus drivers.
While the legal right to transportation as a related service hasn’t changed, Wright-Gallo said the risk is delay through a slower drawdown of IDEA funds, a teacher’s aide request backlog, or a rocky fiscal year 2027 systems transition. That could push back the purchase of adapted vehicles, hiring and training of aides, or approval of specialized routes tied to a student’s IEP.
Wright-Gallo noted while federal restructuring has changed the operational home of programs, federal staffing, and the movement of grant systems and guidance for some non-students with disabilities, those changes do not alter IDEA, Section 504 or McKinney-Vento requirements.
She noted the McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) program was not transferred by any IAA. A separate proposal to fold it into an 18-program block grant and reduce funding from $6.5 billion to roughly two billion dollars was not adopted during the fiscal year 2026 appropriations process, but it may emerge in fiscal year 2027 negotiations.
The open question is whether the agencies now responsible for grant administration and oversight can maintain the same pace and consistency ED built up over time, particularly during the fiscal year 2027 systems transition, Wright-Gallo noted.
“For transportation and special education staff, that translates into a practical planning task of confirming current federal contacts and grant-system requirements, rather than a change in what students are entitled to,” she added.
Wright-Gallo said states carry independent IDEA monitoring responsibilities regardless of federal restructuring, adding it gives states “a natural role in backstopping any reduction in direct federal oversight, although how well that works in practice depends on each state agency’s staff capacity.”
Addressing where documentation gaps actually occur, Wright-Gallo noted the recurring pattern is information loss at handoff points, not generally due
to gaps in the law itself.
Wright-Gallo said there are six funding streams beyond the standard pupil transportation budget that districts may consistently leave on the table, thus an eligible student may not receive a transportation support for which they
otherwise qualify.
They include state-administered reimbursement for health-related services delivered to Medicaid-eligible students, which requires billing infrastructure most districts haven’t built specifically for transportation.
Others include 21st Century Community Learning Centers, vocational rehabilitation, WIOA Title I, Part A and Impact Aid, Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title VII.
Wright-Gallo suggested districts confirm allowability with the relevant administering entity before obligating funds.
“Administrative oversight for several of these programs has moved to new federal agencies as part of ongoing restructuring at the Department of Education,” she said. “Program eligibility and allowable uses for students have not changed as a result.”
Wright-Gallo noted there are 15 funding sources that can support transportation a district provides to get students to and from school or school-related services and can be used alongside the district’s transportation cost data to identify which streams are already captured and which may be worth exploring for students who currently lack an adequate transportation solution.
They include IDEA Part B Section 611, the McKinneyVento Homeless Assistance Act, the U.S. Environmental Protection EPA Clean School Bus Program, the EPA Diesel Emissions Reduction Act, and the Federal Highway Administration Safe Routes to School/Transportation Alternatives Program.
Others include ESEA Title I Part A, ESEA Title II Part A, ESEA Title IV Part A, 21st Century Community Learning Centers (Title IV-B), Impact Aid (ESEA Title VII), Medicaid School-Based Services, IDEA Travel Training (34 CFR §300.39) / VR / WIOA Youth, state categorical funding, state funding formula inclusion, and state reimbursement of district costs.
Alexandra Robinson, president of A. Robinson Consulting and a former NAPT president, noted the most obvious issue is that HHS focuses on a medical perspective.
“When we are educating and transporting students with disabilities, we want to focus on an educational perspective,” said the TSD Conference Tenured Faculty member. “We’ve been lucky enough to have a team of people at the [ED], in the office of special education programs, whose expertise is education, instructional interventions, and assisting states and local entities with technical assistance.
“This will either not exist in that same way or be extremely lacking. For large urban school districts and in states where there is strong accountability and oversight, things may be okay. But in those places where we already have issues with equitability and numerous cases of IEP and IDEA violations, there will be no incentive for any ongoing accountability, especially if the Office of Civil Rights does not exist as it does now.”
Robinson noted McKinney-Vento is now covered under the Every Student Succeeds Act.
“In those states and districts where there is a strong liaison dealing with students who are homeless or temporarily housed, it should be business as usual,” she said, adding the unfunded mandate and reduced federal oversight may mean students are missing necessary, instructional minutes and classroom time because of lack of ownership, responsibility and a sense of urgency at the local levels.
“It’s easy to let administrative noise stand in for a change in obligation when it isn’t one,” added Wright-Gallo. “Our responsibility, professionally, is to hold that line: To keep documentation, training and coordination tight enough that a shift in who processes a grant never becomes a gap in what a student actually receives.
“It’s a reminder of why this work matters in the first place,” she continued. “The bus that shows up on time, the aide who knows a student’s behavior plan, the ride that gets a homeless student back to the only school that still feels like home, aren’t abstracts of policy. They’re the daily, unglamorous proof that the laws are doing what they were written to do.”
Editor’s Note: As reprinted from the October 2026 issue of School Transportation News.
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The Oneida Nation is being honored by the Library of Congress for its Oneida Reads program to boost 3rd-grade reading proficiency among tribal students.
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Republican candidate for governor Tom Tiffany says he’ll make Wisconsin schools more accountable by giving parents and teachers more rights.
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Hackers appear to have stolen about $92,000 from the rural Adams-Friendship Area School District, according to a letter sent to parents.
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The first sign seemed harmless.
Bill Ducett drove his carload of friends in the opposite direction of the Chicago conference where they were headed. His wife Diana — a nurse — watched out the car window, concerned, as they passed unfamiliar streets. When she corrected Bill, embarrassment washed over him as he quickly turned the car around.
It was a small slipup, unless you know Bill: a 78-year-old with a razor-sharp internal compass and an Illinois native who knows the city like the back of his hand.
Diana convinced Bill to go to the doctor. After five hours of testing, he emerged with a diagnosis: mild cognitive impairment, and a prescription: car GPS.
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Now, for three years, Bill has met with medical students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison to talk about what it’s like to live with an early-stage Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
The program, dubbed New Friends, has for 14 years connected people in the early stages of Alzheimer’s and dementia with future medical professionals to learn from one another.
The goal is to teach future health care workers lessons they can’t gain from coursework alone: firsthand experience with people living with cognitive changes outside of a classroom and textbook. Many of the participating students go on to be nurses, doctors, therapists or social workers. Together, they help challenge misconceptions about dementia and work toward better care for patients experiencing it.
“I thought I could be, with my own journey, helping to be productive for somebody else to do something about this. So the motivation was to give back. But in giving back, I’m getting so many benefits,” Bill said.
As Wisconsin’s population ages, elder care workers are in short supply, and even rarer are those with prior experience with Alzheimer’s and dementia. The arrangement is mutually beneficial: Students get experience connecting with people living with cognitive changes, and mentors get social connection during a particularly lonely time.
“Oftentimes medical students are really good at the medicine side of things, but their bedside manner or their understanding of people living with dementia wasn’t the best,” said Sheryl Spensley, education coordinator at UW-Madison’s Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.
The program started small in 2012. Since then, it’s grown exponentially, and more than 300 students have participated. Usually, each mentor takes on two students.
Spensley plays matchmaker, pairing students and mentors who have the most in common.
The meetups look different for every pair. Some gather at the mentor’s home to sit and talk. Others go to parks, coffee shops, restaurants or museums. Some opt for more activity, watching sports, going bowling or playing board games. Bill and Diana’s “friends” have chosen to paint pottery together or attend plays put on by Bill’s son, a teacher at their local school in Oregon, Wisconsin.
There are logistics to navigate that students usually don’t consider in their everyday lives: How will the mentor get to the meeting? Is there suitable parking and seating? Is the meeting place too loud or overstimulating?
“That’s a good learning experience about how differently abled people have to navigate the world, capacity to get in and out of places, and how much time that takes for people,” Spensley said.
All mentors are squarely in the early stages of dementia. In the mid to late stages, communication becomes more challenging, people may live in an assisted living facility, and reflecting on what they’re experiencing can be difficult.
“For some it can be more emotionally distressing at that point,” said Molly Schroeder, outreach program manager at the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute who helps coordinate New Friends.
Much of the conversation can tend to revolve around the mentor, as students ask about things like the logistics of their medical care or their everyday hurdles, but former mentee Meghana Ram said they also often just talked as friends. She found the meetups felt less like an interview and more like a social hangout.
Some of the mentors have caregivers who join and talk about their responsibilities and careers. Technically, Diana joins the meetings as Bill’s mentor.
“She’s a caregiver, but you know, she’s more of a commentator,” Bill joked.
Throughout the semester-long process, students keep a journal where they reflect on what their mentors teach them. They also take surveys before and after the program measuring their attitudes toward people with cognitive decline — questions like, “how comfortable would you be sitting one on one with someone with dementia?” By the end, students’ perceptions grow more positive.
When Bill started telling his neighbors and friends about his diagnosis, he felt their sympathy. But he also noticed that they became uncomfortable and started “pulling back” from him.
“They don’t know what to say,” Diana said of people who learn about Bill’s diagnosis. “They’re afraid of how they’ll be interpreted … They feel sorry for both of us. They’re a little too afraid to get involved.”
Nowadays, the symptoms Bill experiences are small and often harmless: forgetting that he made a cup of coffee for Diana until the cup is cooled. Temporarily losing his keen sense of direction. But he still drives, still attends his son’s plays, still lives his life mostly as normal.
During dementia’s early stages, people often experience confusion or small memory lapses that don’t always impact their ability to live independently. Many with this early diagnosis still have jobs and social lives and are raising kids or grandkids, Schroeder said.
But many people don’t realize that, she said, “because unfortunately, a lot of what we see in the media is, we see people more at the later stages in a nursing home, sitting in a wheelchair in front of a TV. But there are years before that where it doesn’t look like that at all.”
Bill doesn’t feel that same judgment with the New Friends students. They meet him with pure curiosity. He’s mentored eight students over three years.
“I was a school teacher. I was a professor in education. I mentored students in their 20s,” Bill said. “So I meet with these future medical professionals because I can get back in teaching mode. For me, it’s all very comfortable.”
Students say the program dispels many of the myths about dementia they once held, mostly regarding what someone’s daily life must look like after diagnosis.
“Culturally, how we look at the elderly, it’s not good,” Spensley said. “This program shows students that even when you have early-stage dementia, you still have things to contribute to society and things you can learn. That’s why they’re called mentors.”
When Ram worked as a CNA at an assisted living facility throughout high school, she kept meeting dementia patients, and she didn’t feel she had the tools to fully connect with them.
After enrolling at UW-Madison, she joined the New Friends program to improve her communication with patients.
For a year, she set aside time to play at an arcade and go out to eat with her mentors. She asked questions like: “How did you react to the diagnosis? How did you tell your family? Has your social life changed?”
The answers showed her the importance of establishing a personal connection with patients.
“A lot of these patients don’t necessarily have someone to talk to or have someone to listen to them,” Ram said. “By doing that, you can learn so much of what each individual person needs … to make them feel better. Realizing that the experience of this illness looks so different from person to person, and that sometimes it needs a tailored approach, and that only comes with building that trust and having those conversations and listening.”
Ram loved the program so much that when she moved home to Green Bay, she started a mini version with local students.
The program ran for two years in partnership with Curative Connections, a support program for adults with dementia or other cognitive issues. It ended when Ram moved to Wausau to study to become a physician’s assistant. But she hopes to restart something similar someday.
“(I wanted to) go into those patient rooms with better communication methods, or remembering more of the experience, not only for me, but for the patient, too, and maybe for family members,” Ram said. “I think understanding the experience of a disease is so much more different than just a textbook definition of it. Getting to hear that from patients firsthand is really neat.”
Like Ram, not every student will go on to become a caregiver for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. But they’ll be prepared when coming across people with cognitive changes, whether they be patients, family members or perfect strangers.
“Whether that’s at a restaurant, a bank, the grocery store,” Schroeder said, “it’s important to know how to communicate and support those individuals.”
But it isn’t just about preparing students for the people they’ll meet in the future.
Many of the New Friends pairs end up forming a bond and keep in touch after their time in the program ends. Ram said she and her mentors kept in touch for a while by texting each other photos and updates about their lives. Bill and Diana follow where their students go after graduation and look forward to meeting more, semester after semester.
“We feel that those young people have enriched our lives so much,” Diana said. “They keep us looking forward to the next set of friends.”
Miranda Dunlap reports on pathways to success in northeast Wisconsin, working in partnership with Open Campus. Find her on Instagram and Twitter, or send her an email at mdunlap@wisconsinwatch.org.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
How Alzheimer’s and dementia patients teach Wisconsin’s next generation of health care workers is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
On a sunny morning in late August, a dozen teenagers wearing reflective vests and work boots stand on a hill overlooking the farm fields of their central Wisconsin college.
A few steps away is the classroom where they’ll learn how electricity works. Beside it, a handful of poles six stories tall mark the training yard where they’ll train to install and repair power lines, a skill that’s increasingly in need as Wisconsin’s infrastructure ages and data centers demand ever more energy.
Today, they’ll try out some of the toughest physical parts of the job — while racing against the clock.
The students have just 30 minutes to dig a hole 4 feet deep and 2 feet wide. Then they must walk two 100-pound wooden pole chunks down the school’s dirt road and haul a 70-pound piece of wood up a 65-foot pole twice, using only a pulley and their own strength. The student who finishes in the shortest time wins.
This is day three of the nine-month Electrical Power Distribution Program at Northcentral Technical College in Wausau, which prepares about 14 students each year for careers with electric utilities or power line construction companies.
It’s one of seven such programs at the state’s tech colleges, which together enrolled 265 students in 2025.
With a median salary of more than $95,000, electrical line work is one of the country’s most lucrative jobs for people without a college degree. It can also be dangerous and draining, as it often involves long days of manual labor, as well as exposure to the elements, heights and thousands of volts of power.
Most of the students in this class were still in high school just a few months ago. By the end of September, they’d begun scaling utility poles six stories tall. Within a year, they could land apprenticeships that pay more than $34 an hour and put them on track to earn union pensions.
It’s instructor Marc Cegielski’s job to make sure they’re ready.
“It is physically demanding. It is mentally demanding, and your work-life balance is probably not going to be very good — unless you want your work-life balance to be more work than not work,” said Cegielski, who spent four years doing line work before he started teaching. He still works as a lineman for several weeks each summer to keep his skill sharp.
The field of electrical line work is thriving. The country is expected to add 13,600 line worker jobs between 2025 and 2035, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s a jump of 10%, much faster than the average for all jobs. In Wisconsin, the ranks are expected to swell nearly 14% from 2024 to 2034, with about 240 job openings projected each year. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 2150, which represents line workers and a variety of other workers in Wisconsin, reports its membership is at an all-time high.
One reason for that growth: the explosion of artificial intelligence.
While the data centers that provide the computing power for all that AI tend to employ relatively few people once they’re up and running, constructing them takes a lot of labor. And it’s not just the work of building the data centers themselves. Hyperscale data centers, designed to be able to scale up their computing power as needed, will need massive amounts of electricity to power their computers, and Wisconsin will need to expand and update its electrical grid to meet the demand. Wisconsin’s first hyperscale data center opened in Mount Pleasant this summer, and others are under construction in Beaver Dam and Port Washington. Proposals for additional centers are under review in other communities, including Kenosha and Wisconsin Rapids.
The new energy demand comes at a time when states finally have the money to strengthen and expand aging electric grids, thanks to the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill signed into law in 2021. Those funds could help Wisconsin’s electrical infrastructure accommodate more energy sources and rebound more quickly after storms, changes proponents say are needed whether or not the state adds more data centers.
Meanwhile, line workers, like many other tradespeople, have been in increasingly short supply as Wisconsin’s workforce shrinks.
“There’s never been a better time to get involved in this trade, and the work outlook right here at home in Wisconsin looks awesome for the next 10-plus years,” said IBEW Local 2150 business manager Jim Meyer.
Installing and maintaining power lines is rewarding work, Cegielski said, because workers can see the difference they’re making. Sometimes they turn the lights back on after a storm. And sometimes, they bring electricity to a place that’s never had it, as he and a few students do each spring on the Navajo Reservation.
“Getting people’s electricity back feels really good,” Cegielski said.
But the job isn’t for everyone.
Line work involves heavy exertion in all kinds of weather. Machines can handle the tough tasks some of the time, but Cegielski warns his students there are plenty of times when they’ll need to dig or lift by hand because no machine is available, or it’d be too hard to maneuver the machinery — say, in a residential backyard. Plus, if there are buried utilities within 18 inches, mechanical digging is prohibited.
“You can’t always use a machine. Sometimes you’re the machine,” Cegielski tells his students as they race to dig their holes. He says he’s sometimes spent a whole day digging a single hole, with or without a machine to help.
The students wipe their brows. One slips off his gloves. Cegielski urges them on. “Come on, man. The customer needs their electricity back.”
With four minutes left on the clock, Sam Volm, 18, unfolds a ruler to check his progress.
“I’m only about 2 feet deep! This is so crazy,” he says. He’s not alone. None of the holes are nearly deep enough.
It’s just one example of the challenges of the job. Some line workers work for contractors hired by utility companies to build or maintain their infrastructure. Those workers could be on the road, often out of state, for weeks or months at a time. Line workers employed by local utility companies generally work close to home. Still, many work 12- to 16-hour shifts, and they may need to be available to help on nights or weekends.
“Your phone rings a lot,” Cegielski said. “You’re going to be missing a lot of things that you’d rather be doing with your friends and your family to answer that phone call and get people’s power back on so that they can cook supper, so that they can go to work and earn money for their own families.”
And then there are the safety concerns. Cegielski said he’s never been seriously injured doing line work, but he knows the risks that come from working with high voltage and at high heights, sometimes on busy roads. Electrical power line installers and repairers had the 16th highest fatal injury rate of all U.S. jobs, with an annual rate of around 24 fatalities and 189 nonfatal injuries per 100,000 workers, according to a USA Today analysis of federal data from 2020 and 2021.
Despite the challenges of the job, the training program at Northcentral Technical College consistently has a waitlist.
For Volm, who’s worked in construction since he was 14, spending his days outside was part of the appeal.
“You’re not behind a computer or nothing. It’s real physical work, it’s what I’m used to,” Volm said.
His dad, an electrician, encouraged him to consider line work. Bigger lines mean bigger money, he said, plus he’d get to travel.
The morning drill didn’t deter him. He’s been wrestling since first grade, so he’s got lots of practice putting his body to the test.
“It was pretty tough, but I muscled through it, obviously, and embraced the suck.”
Training programs like these are an optional extra step for those looking to enter the field. Line workers get most of their training through apprenticeships that last three to six years and require only a high school diploma. But doing a program like the one at Northcentral Tech first gives students a chance to try out the work before they commit.
That’s how Pat Keegan, a business agent with IBEW Local 2150, got started in the industry 25 years ago.
“I’m glad I did it because I got comfortable with climbing and I knew I wanted to do this career,” Keegan said, though plenty of line workers go straight into apprenticeships.
“I’ve seen people right out of high school, skip the tech school part of it … and have no issues,” Keegan said.
Prospective line workers shouldn’t assume this training will help them get an apprenticeship faster, Meyer said. Instead, they should think of it as a chance to solidify their skills and learn more about things like electrical theory.
For Cegielski, the Northcentral Tech program is also about teaching the all-important “soft skills” that employers are increasingly looking for, like how to solve problems and persevere through challenges.
Take the August morning’s drill. What the students don’t know is that Cegielski designed the digging portion to be nearly impossible within the time limit.
“I like to observe to see, once they figure out they’re running out of time, do they continue trying, or do they give up? It’s a really good marker of character,” Cegielski said. “Even if they don’t think they can complete the task, they should keep going at it.”
Six other Wisconsin tech colleges offer electrical power distribution programs, but capacity is limited. Graduates earn around $43,000 more a year than the median high school graduate, according to an analysis of earnings data from three of the programs, conducted by Open Campus and The HEA Group. Program cost varies by school but typically runs from $8,500 to $11,000.
Despite the growing demand for line workers, Northcentral Technical College hasn’t expanded its small program. Cegielski says he hasn’t heard anything about plans to do so.
“They need more people than I can provide,” Cegielski said, “and I don’t see that changing anytime in the near future … I don’t know if that’s a problem that the technical college system wants to handle or can even handle.”
Leaders at Northcentral Technical College did not respond to a request for comment.
Kristina Haensgen, a spokesperson for Moraine Park Technical College, which also trains future line workers, noted the “strong and ongoing demand for skilled electrical line workers” but said the school has no immediate plans to grow its program.
Chippewa Valley Technical College, Milwaukee Area Technical College and Southwest Wisconsin Technical College did not offer comment on their line worker training programs.
If colleges do want to expand these programs, the booming industry might actually make it tougher, said Katy Pettersen, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Technical Colleges System.
“We have not heard much on this front, other than colleges may be having trouble finding qualified instructors because the companies building the data centers are paying so well.”
Meyer of IBEW Local 2150 said the number of apprenticeships available through his union depends on how much local employers are hiring. In a good year, there could be room for around 170 new apprentices, he said, and it looks like Wisconsin is on track for some good years. Those waiting for an apprenticeship can get jobs as “groundmen” assisting line-working crews until a spot opens.
Cegielski talks with many of his former students, and he doesn’t think any of them are struggling to find work.
That stands in contrast to many other fields, where AI has left many uncertain about the future. Recent college graduates with four-year degrees are having more trouble finding jobs. Across the country, office workers are wondering if they’ll be replaced by increasingly powerful AI agents, or if they’ll have the skills they’ll need to use ever-more-ubiquitous AI tools.
“At the moment, it doesn’t seem like AI is knocking at our door to take our jobs,” Cegielski said with a laugh. ”(The work) is hands-on, and it doesn’t look like machines and robots are going to be able to take it in the future. Maybe someday.”
Natalie Yahr reports on pathways to success statewide for Wisconsin Watch, working in partnership with Open Campus. Email her at nyahr@wisconsinwatch.org.
Wisconsin Watch is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. Subscribe to our newsletters for original stories and our Friday news roundup.
As data centers test Wisconsin’s electrical grid, job opportunities flourish 60 feet in the air is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
School transportation professionals who need supervisor approval to attend the 2026 Transporting Students with Disabilities and Special Needs (TSD) Conference and Trade Show have a resource to help make their case: A downloadable, customizable supervisor-approval letter provided by School Transportation News.
The template is designed to help prospective attendees demonstrate how conference participation can benefit their transportation operations. It outlines the event’s educational and networking opportunities, highlights keynote presentations and includes an itemized cost estimate for registration, airfare, lodging, transportation and meals. TSD Conference begins Nov. 4 and 5 with the Transportation Director Summit, which requires separate approval to attend. The full conference runs from Nov. 6-10 at the Embassy Suites Dallas-Frisco Hotel & Convention Center in Frisco, Texas.
Users can personalize the letter with their supervisor’s name, specific conference sessions relevant to their responsibilities, and current organizational priorities. The template also emphasizes sharing newly acquired knowledge with colleagues afterward, extending the value of the investment beyond a single attendee.
Training is essential to the industry’s commitment to safety, efficiency and service, especially when transporting students with disabilities and preschoolers. These particularly vulnerable student populations require specialized knowledge, equipment, individualized planning and communication strategies that are not always addressed in general transportation training.
Few educational opportunities provide the depth and concentration of professional development found at the TSD Conference, where the entire program focuses on these students and the transportation professionals who serve them.
The full conference agenda addresses behavior management, legal compliance, Head Start transportation, emergency response, student independence and operational best practices. Keynote speakers include behavior specialist Patrick Mulick, special education attorney Julie Weatherly and former federal special education official Glenna Wright-Gallo.
Special training opportunities include the eight-hour, hands-on seminar on proper child passenger safety instruction, sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as well as wheelchair and occupant securement certification, and hands-on emergency evacuation training. The Transportation Director Summit and Special Needs Roadeo offer additional leadership development and practical learning opportunities. Certain activities require separate registration, additional fees or both.
Professional networking is another important component. Attendees can connect during the Nov. 5 welcome reception at Topgolf The Colony and the Nov. 6 Ride & Drive + Technology Demonstration.
The Nov. 8 TSD Trade Show and Tailgate Reception, scheduled from 3:30 to 8:30 p.m., will feature approximately 70 exhibitors showcasing products, technology and services. Additional networking and trade show information is available online.
Prospective attendees are encouraged to download the supervisor-approval letter, identify relevant training opportunities and submit their requests while time remains.
Registration remains open online, and attendees also may register in person at the Embassy Suites Dallas-Frisco. Space in certain specialized training sessions is limited.
Related: Special Needs Roadeo Returns to TSD Conference with Expanded Training, Team Challenges
Related: Workshop on Solving Challenging Transportation Scenarios to Close TSD Conference
Related: New Date Set for NHTSA Child Passenger Safety Training at TSD
The post Make the Case for Specialized Training at TSD Conference appeared first on School Transportation News.
The Mole Lake Sokaogon Chippewa Community is partnering with Nicolet College and the state Department of Workforce Development to launch an apprenticeship program to help train workers needed for a high-speed internet project.
The post Local tribe partners with Nicolet College to create broadband apprenticeship program appeared first on WPR.
Amid National School Bus Safety Week, teaching young students how to safely navigate the school bus routine is an important part of early childhood education. Gregory Nichols hopes to support those efforts through his children’s picture book, Mr. G Big Yellow Bus, which introduces young readers to school bus safety.
“One thing they can learn is the importance of seatbelts, the importance of not standing in the aisle and not throwing stuff out the windows,” said Nichols, who’s been a school bus driver for nearly a decade, most recently with Bridgeton Public Schools in New Jersey.
By introducing these safety lessons through a children’s picture book, Nichols said he hopes young students will become more familiar with safe behavior on and around the school bus. As a school bus driver himself, Nichols knows the responsibilities he has and the importance of keeping the children safe at all times.
“Our responsibility as bus drivers is no kid left behind, and sometimes if you watch the news, you see kids get left on a bus,” Nichols said. “It’s important for the school bus drivers and the children to be aware of their surroundings to keep this from happening.”
After reading Mr G Big Yellow Bus, Nichols said he hopes young readers will understand that “your bus driver cares about you. I take my job seriously; I go above and beyond. Also, I want to see that they are safe and respect others.”
Nichols is working to reach more students through school readings and outreach effort. He said he hopes to encourage reading the physical copy of a book for young children, as an alternative to electronics. Mr G Big Yellow Bus is available for purchase on Amazon.
Additionally, Nichols is creating a Spanish book version, hoping he can eventually make it available in all languages. Nichols is also working on another children’s book, which will focus more on safety.
“I’m going to continue to write because I found a passion for it now,” Nichols said. “The recognition that I’m getting from the kids and my family, the support that I’m getting now from writing a book, and it’s something positive.”
For Nichols, one of the most rewarding parts of writing the book has been seeing how young readers connect with the story.
“I’m getting a lot of positive feedback from people that bought the book for their kids,” Nichols said. “I FaceTimed a couple of them, just hearing them say, ‘That’s Mr. G! That’s Mr. G!’ It’s really a heartwarming thing.”
Related: Georgia Grandmother Writes School Bus Safety Book for Children
Related: Children’s Books by School Bus Drivers Double as Safety Education Tool
Related: Connecticut School Bus Company Publishes Bilingual Book to Ease First-Day Bus Anxiety
Related: NC Transportation Manager Channels Passion for Education, Safety into Children’s Books
Related: School Bus Driver Creates Children’s Book to Promote School Bus Safety
The post Children’s Book Highlights Importance of School Bus Safety Through Driver Lens appeared first on School Transportation News.
Francis Halzen was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work pioneering neutrino astronomy.
The post Latest Wisconsin Nobel Prize winner shares how scientific collaboration enabled cosmic discoveries appeared first on WPR.
A hallway in La Follette High School in Madison. (Baylor Spears/Wisconsin Examiner)
It was a dreary, rainy Thursday morning when the state education department announced some depressing news: According to the final, official numbers, 62% of Wisconsin school districts will receive less money in state general aid this year than they did last year.
Schools are struggling because, for the third year in a row, the state budget put no new money into general school aid, the Department of Public Instruction pointed out in an Oct. 15 press release. That’s after more than 15 years during which annual adjustments to per-pupil general operating revenue in Wisconsin schools has failed to keep pace with inflation. The latest school funding data arrived from DPI under the header: “Nearly two-thirds of districts will receive less aid due to flat state funding, antiquated funding formula.”
About an hour later, a press release from Gov. Tony Evers’ office cheerfully announced that Wisconsin has ended the fiscal year with a $3.3 billion budget balance and a record $2.1 billion in the state’s “rainy day” fund. The top line from the governor’s office message was upbeat: “Despite continued national economic turbulence, Wisconsin maintains strong fiscal position, reaching seven consecutive years of record-high General Fund balances during Gov. Evers’ tenure.”
These two announcements, although dramatically different in mood, are directly connected. The reason Wisconsin has a big budget surplus is largely because the state has abandoned its commitment to fund its public schools.
A slide presentation by Anne Chapman, research director for the Wisconsin Association of School Business Officials, graphically illustrates the decline in annual adjustments to per-pupil general operating revenue for Wisconsin public school districts since the 2008-2009 school year. Using Legislative Fiscal Bureau data, Chapman shows the steadily widening gap between the annual adjustment in general operating dollars schools would have had each year if revenue had kept pace with inflation and what they actually got. This year the shortfall reached $3,571 per kid.
At the same time, schools have been carrying about $1.29 billion in special education costs that are not reimbursed by state or federal aid.
Schools have never bounced back from the drastic cuts to education spending during the administration of former Gov. Scott Walker. But the current budget situation is unprecedented
“The 2025-27 state budget provided no increase to general school aids. This was an extremely unusual policy choice, especially in light of the fact that the state had a $4.3 billion surplus going into the budget process,” she says. “The last instance of flat or negative general aids across both years of a biennial budget was the 2009-11 budget, at which time the state was facing a deficit.”
In other words, in a historic act of stinginess, the Legislature, while staring at a sizeable budget surplus, chose not to add any money to general school aid, the largest form of state support for K-12 schools. That was a deliberate policy choice, not some sort of emergency measure taken under duress.
Wisconsin’s school funding formula is complicated — a mix of state and local funds divvied up based on school districts’ property wealth, enrollment numbers and spending patterns. Different districts get different amounts of funding from the state — and some get none at all. When funding is flat, statewide, some districts get more and some get less. This is the “antiquated” system DPI referred to in its press release. It uses outdated metrics, and doesn’t account for the effects of high poverty or large numbers of English language learners.
State schools superintendent Jill Underly expanded on this in her State of Education speech in September: “The formula places value on the wrong things. It values enrollment, district spending, and property value, rather than student needs. It fails to ask the most essential question: how much does it actually cost to educate the students who live in a district so that they have an equal opportunity to succeed? A student’s opportunity for success should not depend on their zip code. If we are going to improve the academic outcomes for ALL students, then the funding formula must prioritize student need.”
Because of the complexity of school finance, and the patchwork of have and have-not districts, it’s hard to figure the exact amount Wisconsin has underfunded its schools since 2009, when overall per-pupil spending stopped keeping pace with inflation. But you can get a rough, back of the envelope estimate by taking the three-year rolling average for calculating revenue limit and per pupil categorical aid from 2025-26 — 781,367 students — and multiplying it by a calculation derived from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau’s data on the cumulative shortfall in annual adjustments to per-pupil general operating revenue, which was $3,468.60. The number you get is $2.7 billion in combined state aid and property tax levies. If the state returned to its much-discussed commitment to fund two-thirds of the cost of public schools, that would mean we’d have to allocate $1.8 billion of the current $3.3 billion surplus to make schools whole. Add to that the $1.29 billion in special ed costs the state has sloughed off on the schools, and it reaches $3 billion.
One of the main effects of the state deciding not to fund schools is that the burden has fallen instead on local property taxpayers, who are confronting another surge in referendum requests from their local school districts in the voting booth this fall.
Gov. Evers has proposed, by his own estimate in an address to the Wisconsin Public Education Network, $7 billion in new funding for schools that was rejected by the state Legislature over his two terms. He was bitterly disappointed when the state Senate rejected a $1.8 billion deal he struck with Republican legislative leaders that included some money for increased special education funding and property tax relief along with income tax cuts.
But in his latest message, the governor embraces the unspent money sitting in state coffers as “damn good news.”
“We’ve ended every fiscal year I’ve been governor with a positive balance,” he says. “We’ve shown that state government can work, and work better for the people we serve, and I’m incredibly proud of our efforts.”
Along with the surplus, the governor’s office celebrates the “largest balance in the ‘rainy day’ fund in state history” — at $2.1 billion, it’s six times larger than when Evers took office.
Meanwhile, schools are in worse and worse shape, and all over the state, people are struggling to keep up with the cost of housing as property taxes rise.
Whatever feeling of satisfaction there is in knowing the state has squirreled away a fat rainy day fund, when you look outside, it’s raining.
A rally scheduled for Friday evening aims to allow sexual assault survivors to share their stories and demand change from UW-Madison and the city to prevent sexual violence. The organizer tells WPR proceeds will support the RCC Sexual Violence Resource Center.
The post Madison rally aims to support survivors of sexual assault, demand changes to prevent violence appeared first on WPR.
Organizers attempting to recall two Winneconne Community School District board members will file an appeal with the Wisconsin Elections Commission this week after their petitions were rejected.
The post Winneconne school board recall petition rejected, organizers filing appeal with WEC appeared first on WPR.
Follow the adventures of Calvin, an anxious but dutiful bus driver, and his sentient and safety-conscious school bus named Christina. The short story follows Calvin’s route adventures while highlighting very real circumstances that drivers face and underscoring the importance of student transportation safety. Find group discussion prompts at the end of each article. The story advisor is Fredrick Tottenham, student safety specialist with Irving ISD in Texas.
“Alright, girl, I’m going to need your help with this one,” I whisper to the dash. My stomach twists. Why does confronting teenagers make me such a nervous wreck?
The students are all aboard, absorbed in social media feeds and the latest high school gossip—everyone except Thomas and Stephen, who can barely hold their heads up. I swallow the lump in my throat and ignore the curious stares as I make my way toward them.
“Hey, Mr. Calvin. See somethin’ you like?” Thomas slurs.
“With glasses that thick, I’m sure he does!” Stephen shouts.
The bus erupts in laughter, and suddenly I’m back in ninth-grade English, fourth period, with Ms. Fannin. She had called on me to read from the lesson, and for one brief, shining moment, I thought I was impressing the prom queen. Then Bentley—the class clown—snatched my glasses from my face, slipped them on, and joked that the lenses were as thick as a fishbowl. He earned detention and the laughter of the entire class. I earned a nickname: Cal the Clown Fish.
“Alright, guys,” I say, forcing confidence into my voice, “What’s going on? More importantly, have you been drinking anything you shouldn’t be drinking?”
The boys trade a quick glance, silently agreeing to keep up the act. Thomas drops his head into his hands while Stephen crosses his arms and turns toward the window. I give them one last chance to come clean. When neither responds, I warn them that my next step will be to contact the authorities. Still, neither one moves.
I return to the front of the bus, pick up the radio, and call Dispatch.
“Route 7568 to Dispatch.”
“Dispatch here. Go ahead, Route 7568.”
“I have a code 9-32.”
“10-4, 7568. Call Dispatch directly for further assistance.”
I call Dispatch directly, and Ms. Debbie answers.
“Hi, Mr. Calvin. I’m relieved Sasha is safe and the police have cleared the area. You reported an emergency over the radio. Is that correct?”
“Yes. Thank you, Ms. Debbie. And, uh, I have a problem on my bus.”
I rub the back of my neck and glance toward Thomas and Stephen while I explain what’s happening. Ms. Debbie listens carefully, then says she’ll contact an administrator at Townsend High and notify the authorities.
I sigh and glance back at the boys. They have no idea how much trouble they’re in.
Then Christina’s dash pings:
CANS
A moment later, it pings again:
BACKPACKS
How could Christina possibly know what was inside their bags? Then again, she seems to notice everything. Which is ridiculous, of course—Christina doesn’t have eyes. Or does she?
A sharp knock strikes the folding doors. An officer reaches for the exterior handle and pulls it hard. The doors fold outward with a screech, and two officers climb aboard, their boots thudding against the steps. Christina shifts beneath their weight as a wave of hot, humid air rolls through the doorway, carrying the scent of sunbaked pavement. Around me, the students’ chatter fades row by row until the bus falls silent.
“Hello, sir. I’m Officer Wilmer and this is my partner, Officer Hutchins. We were dispatched by request of Ervens ISD on a report of public intoxication of a student.”
I introduce myself to the officers and tell them that the students are hiding booze in their backpacks. When Thomas and Stephen hear this, they both aggressively object.
“You ain’t even looked in my bag, Mr. Calvin,” Stephen protests. “You don’t know what’s in there!”
“Is that right? Well, open your backpacks and let us look inside,” Officer Hutchins demands.
The officers motion for the boys to hand over their backpacks and then begin searching them. It doesn’t take long. From the bags, they pull a mix of empty and unopened beer cans. With the evidence in plain sight, the officers order Thomas and Stephen to stand and escort them off the bus.
With their heads hanging, the boys sober up to the reality of what they’ve done. They may face suspension from transportation, suspension from school, and whatever charges may result from their actions. I thank the officers and close the doors behind them while the rest of the students whisper and stare out the windows as Thomas and Stephen are led to the patrol vehicle.
“Alright, everyone, I think we’ve all learned a lesson here, haven’t we? Let’s take our seats and put on our seat belts,” I say, feeling a bit more confident.
I hear the students shuffle into their seats and hear their seat belts click into place.
Click.
Click.
Click.
The familiar sound echoes through Christina’s cabin. I glance into the student mirror, scanning the rows of seated students, and every belt I can see appears secure.
Satisfied, I turn forward, fasten my seat belt, and push in the parking brake, ready to put Christina in gear. Before I can pull away, Christina’s dash pings, as if she knows exactly what I’m thinking:
NOT SO FAST
I glance back into the student mirror, adjust it, and spot a student near the rear. She glares at me with her arms folded, her seat belt hanging at her side. I signal for her to fasten her seatbelt, but she only scoffs.
What a route.
In one afternoon, I’ve faced more than enough: The false but still terrifying alarm of an active shooter at Sasha’s workplace, my own near-miss in safety at the crosswalk, and two inebriated students being escorted off the bus by the authorities. Now, after all that, one student is refusing to fasten her seat belt. For her safety, I know I can’t move the bus. I run both hands through my hair, remove my glasses, and rub my eyes and face.
Some days, transporting students is simple. Other days, it feels impossibly complicated. Right now, I can’t tell if I’m driving a bus or clinging to the front seat of a roller coaster, bracing for every twist, turn, and unexpected drop.
Christina’s dash chirps once more:
BUCKLE UP.
Previous Stop: Episode 2
The Yellow Brick Line
© 2026 Gabrielle Marie Kelley. Calvin & Christina: Where Safety Takes the Wheel and all associated characters, concepts, and illustrations are the intellectual property of Gabrielle Marie Kelley, office manager for the Irving Independent School District transportation department. Published with permission through School Transportation News.
The post Episode 3: Sip, Sip, No Way! appeared first on School Transportation News.
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