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.

Sasha, I whisper.

Usually, Sasha is the one who steadies me when life takes a U-turn. Now she is the one in trouble, and every nerve in my body screams for me to get to her. But Townsend High is still waiting—rows of students depending on me to arrive. The thought presses against my chest like an ever-augmenting weight. How can I run toward Sasha without abandoning the students?

The radio crackles and for a few seconds, all I hear is static. The white noise reminds me that I am not alone, I have help.

Base to Route 7568, please give Dispatch a landline when you are parked in a safe location.

I take a right turn and pull into a quiet neighborhood where tall trees lean over the curb and pour cool shade across Christina’s windshield. Out of the sun’s glare, my phone screen sharpens. I squint, thumb through my contacts, and zoom in on the number for Ervens ISD Transportation Dispatch.

It seems like an eternity passes before Ms. Debbie clicks over and says, “Mr. Calvin, are you in a safe location..? Good, sir. I know you heard the emergency code over the radio, and you must be worried about Ms. Sasha. We have a plan for you and your students, please listen closely…”

A comforting warmth drives through me when I realize Ms. Debbie remembers. She remembers the day that I told her Sasha had become a pharmacy tech, and the smile on my face when I said Sasha had landed a job at the pharmacy just down the road from Transportation. Ms. Debbie smiled, too, when she suggested that I take the opportunity to steal lunch breaks with Sasha to keep the romance alive. I am a darn good bus driver, steady with my hands and sharp with my routes, but romance has no clear directions or traffic signs and so I avoid roads leading to affection like a bus driver avoids cul-de-sacs. Now, with the radio humming and fear sitting bitter in my stomach, I realize that Sasha may be in the kind of trouble that makes a man regret every unattempted romantic notion.

Palms sweaty, I clamp the phone tighter to my ear and listen as Ms. Debbie lays out the plan in that calm, steady voice dispatchers use even when panic is crowding the line. Another driver is on the way to Townsend High to take over my route. After that, someone in a district vehicle will bring me back to base, where I can follow the emergency without putting myself, or my students, in danger. I try to argue, but she cuts through my protest with gentle firmness. The police have already blocked the roads around the pharmacy, she tells me. I would not get within ten feet of Sasha if I tried. All I would find is flashing blue lights, hard barricades, and the feeling of helplessness. She added that I could also put Sasha in further danger—that was enough to win over my consent.

“Ok, Ms. Debbie. I’m headed to Townsend High right now.”

“Perfect, Mr. Calvin. I will keep you updated if anything changes.”

Christina gives a low, eager hum as I ease her back onto the road toward Townsend High.

The urge to call Sasha jerks me like a brake check. Maybe she will answer. Maybe I will hear her voice, shaky but safe, on the other end and finally be able to breathe again. I reach for my cellphone on the tray beneath the dash, but the moment my fingers touch it, it refuses to move. The phone sits there, stubborn and still, as if Christina has glued it to the tray herself. Then her odometer pings, bright and sharp against the dashboard, and one word flashes across the display:

FOCUS

Heat crawls up my neck. Sorry, girl. I pull my hand away from the phone and plant both hands on the wheel, left at nine, right at three. My fear for Sasha had shoved everything else out of my head, even the law I know by heart: no mobile device while operating a school bus.

Finally, I turn into the school driveway and ease Christina into place. Beyond the windshield, the students gather in loose, laughing clusters, backpacks slung low, cellphone postures, and faces bright and impatient to climb aboard. They have no idea that danger is unfolding only five miles away, or that my nerves are rattling beneath my skin like loose lug nuts. For their sake, I smooth my face, swallow the fear, and try to keep it that way.

I secure the bus, set my hand on the door switch, and flick it open so the students can climb aboard. Nothing happens. No hiss of air, no folding door, no rush of chatter spilling into the aisle. Frowning, I flip the switch again. The doors stay sealed tight.

What’s the matter now, girl?

A soft mechanical click answers me. I look down just in time to see the gearshift slide into Drive, and my forehead tightens in a roadmap of confusion.

I can’t leave the students standing out there, Christina. Come on, girl.

Christina stays in Drive. No matter how many times I flip the switch, the doors refuse to open. I let out a slow breath and ask her again what is wrong. In answer, the right crossover mirror dips downward, smooth and deliberate, until the front tire comes into view. That is when I see it: Christina has rolled past the yellow brick line. The line is there for a reason. When the bus stops behind it, the walkway stays clear and the students can board from the safety of the marked crosswalk. Past that line, they would have to step out of their protected path and crowd too close to the bus’s nose. Christina is not being stubborn. She is keeping them safe. I need to follow the safety rules of the yellow brick line.

Backing up a bus full of blind spots is never the safe choice, and Christina knows it. She is not asking me to reverse; she is telling me to move forward, circle the drive, and return to the loading zone the right way. This time, I need to stop with her nose behind the yellow line, where the students can step from the marked crosswalk into the open doors.

Got it, girl. I’m sorry, my mind is with Sasha.

I gesture to the students to wait, and they back up with grins and nods. I circle the driveway and come back to the pickup spot, stopping at the yellow line. I flip the switch to open the doors and, this time, they open wide. Just then, Nathan, one of the stand-by drivers, steps in front of the doorway, blocking the students from entering.

“Hey Cal! I heard the bad news, man, I’m so sorry! They sent me to finish your route!” Nathan yells while entering the bus.

Christina’s dash pings:

WHO?

I didn’t think she would be happy about having a sub-driver. I don’t think I am happy about Nathan being her sub-driver. Is it odd that I’m jealous when other men ride her? Wow, that’s weird.

I throw that thought into neutral before it can roll into the gutter. Nathan is an experienced driver; surely, he can safely drive Christina for one route. Sasha is the one in danger.

Just as I jump out of the driver’s seat Ms. Debbie comes on the radio and announces:

Base to all drivers. Base to all drivers. There is no longer a threat at Culter Road and Pits. This area is now clear and safe. Please proceed as normal on your routes.

The news hits me like clean air after inhaling exhaust. I sink back into the driver’s seat, let out a long, shaky breath, and drag my fingers through my hair. My chest still feels tight but loosens each second I realize Sasha is safe. Then my phone buzzes against the tray beneath the dash. I snatch it up, and Sasha’s name and image glow on the screen.

Heard the news, babe? Don’t worry, I’m safe. I’ve been home since noon, wrapped in a blanket and sipping ginger tea. I’ve felt queasy all morning. Everybody is ok. The police stopped the “gunman” outside—some kid with a realistic water gun. I’ll explain everything when you get home. I love you.

Relief washes through me first. Then my brain, apparently done surviving one emergency, highlights two words in Sasha’s message like hazard lights:

Queasy.

Morning.

Now, I am no doctor, I drive a bus for a living. But even I know those two words ride the same route.

Morning sickness?

“Did you hear that Cal! The coast is clear! I guess I don’t have to finish your route, after all!”

“Well, Nathan, I guess you’re off the hook.” I mutter, my voice still rough from the scare. Nathan grins, gives Christina’s handrail a quick slap, I wince, and he hops back down the steps.

Christina’s dash pings before I can settle myself in the driver’s seat:

Whew!

I pause with one hand on the wheel. Whew? Was Christina relieved because the threat was over or because Nathan would not be driving her after all? Sometimes I wonder if student safety is the only thing that truly stirs her metal heart.

I shake my head, let the question roll away like loose gravel under the tires, and turn toward the waiting students with my best bus driver’s smile.

Then two students climb aboard with their heads hanging low, their steps clumsy and uneven. When they pass me, a sour, yeasty stink rolls off them putting the pub in public school.

My smile disappears.

Surely not.

Before I can decide when to question them, Christina’s dash pings again:

UN-HAPPY HOUR?

Ask Your Team:
What can happen when students load outside of the loading area? And what can you do to keep students safely within loading zones?

---

Next Stop: Episode 3
Sip, Sip, No Way! – Student Monitoring: Prevent alcohol use and recognize impairment

Previous Stop: Episode 1
Roll, Roll, No Bus Bus! – Avoid Distractions During Pre-Trip Inspections

---

© 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 2: “The Yellow Brick Line” appeared first on School Transportation News.

A Waukesha County judge has ruled a provision that allowed Milwaukee County to redirect funds slated for a state school library fund is unconstitutional.

The post Judge rules against Milwaukee County diversion of school library funds appeared first on WPR.

The country’s two largest school districts — New York City and Los Angeles — banned most student use of artificial intelligence in classrooms for this school year as anxiety over AI’s effect on learning intensifies.

The Los Angeles Unified School District announced last week that it is barring student use of generative AI on school-issued devices for the current school year. Generative AI creates new text, images or other content following a user’s instructions. During the school year, a committee will produce recommendations for use of the technology in future years.

New York City Public Schools last week announced a similar but less broad approach. The district put in place a one-year moratorium on generative AI for children from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. 

High school students will have to complete 45-minute AI literacy modules twice a year. Some career-focused AI use will be allowed and some high schools will be permitted to test AI pilot programs.

The restrictions, which New York officials said will affect 600,000 students, will allow time to study the technology’s impacts. 

“The tech industry wants us to believe that A.I.-powered early education is not only inevitable, but necessary,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a news release. “We do not see it that way.” 

Chicago officials may follow suit. About half the candidates running for the Chicago Board of Education this November have signed a pledge calling for a three-year moratorium on generative AI use in the public school classrooms.

Smaller school districts around the country have taken similar steps. Districts in Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Texas and Washington have blocked or limited tools such as ChatGPT, while some allow approved platforms under teacher supervision.

Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at rsequeira@stateline.org.

The study results showing degenerative brain disease in roughly 25 percent of the former NFL athletes tested may not translate to lower levels of play like high school and college football.

The post Wisconsin neuropsychologist responds to new study on brain injuries, CTE in football players appeared first on WPR.

Gov. Tony Evers is taking his final back-to-school tour of the state, visiting K-12 classrooms across Wisconsin to meet students, families and staff and tout his record as the “Education Governor.”

If you don’t happen to live in one of the 72 Wisconsin school districts that went to referendum last spring, begging local property taxpayers to cover basic costs the state is not meeting, you might get the impression from Evers’ valedictory tour that he is leaving office having solved the urgent problem of chronic underfunding of Wisconsin schools. 

“After a decade of disinvestment, Gov. Evers has spent the last almost eight years working to invest in public education at every level,” a statement released this week by the governor’s office declares. “During his time in office, Gov. Evers has enacted budgets to restore two-thirds funding for public schools for the first time in over two decades, provide the largest special education aid increase in state history, and bring per pupil aid to its highest level ever.”

Sounds like a strong record of accomplishment!

But wait, why does a lawsuit filed this year by the Wisconsin PTA, students, parents, teachers and communities across the state charge that Wisconsin “has seemingly abandoned its commitment to the education of Wisconsin’s public school children” and is violating its own constitution by failing to adequately fund public schools? 

The short answer is that Evers, along with the Republican legislative leaders who are the targets of the lawsuit, are using misleading language to pass off austerity for schools as generosity.

Take Evers’ claim about restoring the state’s long-abandoned commitment to two-thirds funding for schools. That two-thirds number is based on counting money in the state budget that schools are not allowed to spend. While the money is technically allocated for education, the state did not lift school revenue caps, so it can only be spent for property-tax relief. 

“Meeting the state’s two-thirds funding commitment doesn’t put a single new pencil in a classroom when you provide zero dollars in new spending,” explains Heather DuBois Bourenane of the Wisconsin Public Education Network, “and the current budget provided zero dollars in new spendable aid for both years of this biennium.”

Far from reaping a historic investment, students and teachers are starting the year in Wisconsin with no new money for schools. 

The state’s share of special education funding, which fell from a high of 70% in the 1970s to hover around 30% in recent years, did get a bump in the last budget, reversing a dire drop-off. But the “largest special education increase in state history” only amounted to a jump from 30 to 35% last year — considerably less than the 42% reimbursement rate state officials originally projected. 

Finally, in a sense, Evers did bring per-pupil aid to its highest level ever, but like his other claims, this is more a rhetorical victory than a concrete benefit to schools. Using his line-item veto, Evers extended school districts’ ability to raise $325 in revenue per pupil from local taxpayers for the next 400 years. This move infuriated Republicans, and they used it as a reason for not giving schools any new money in the current budget. But the $325 per pupil increase is not hard cash, it’s just revenue-raising authority granted to districts, which are allowed to raise property taxes by that amount if they choose to. Some, having exhausted the good will of local taxpayers with repeated referendum asks, have not done so. 

All in all, schools in Wisconsin are in bad financial shape, and property taxpayers are weary of filling the gap left by the state abandoning its obligation to kids. 

“The Legislature is selling kids short,” says Jeff Mandell of Law Forward, which is representing the plaintiffs in the school funding lawsuit. The Wisconsin Constitution guarantees every child an equal opportunity for a sound, basic education. But for years, the plaintiffs argue, the state has been breaking that promise.

Adams-Friendship school district, one of the parties in the lawsuit, used to have five elementary schools within its 500 square miles. Now, because of school closures due to low enrollment and shrinking budgets, it has only one K-12 school. Kids spend hours riding the bus to a single school building with aging infrastructure where many classrooms are unusable on hot days. 

Huge challenges are also facing urban districts. In Beloit last year one in eight students was homeless. 

“There is this fictitious idea that everyone has budgets, the schools just have to tighten their belts,” says Mandell. The reality is, even as the challenges schools face pile up, the state has steadily decreased funding, to the point where many now face an existential crisis.

The current lawsuit is not the first challenge to Wisconsin’s school funding formula based on the idea that the state is not meeting its constitutional obligation to provide a basic, free education to all children. 

Back in 2000, a divided Wisconsin Supreme Court rejected a similar argument in the Vincent v. Voight case. 

In that case, “the Court said the system is not bad enough right now to violate the constitution,” Mandell says. But since then, two full generations of kids have completed kindergarten through 12th grade, and conditions have deteriorated dramatically.

When Vincent v. Voight was decided, school revenue limits were still automatically pegged to inflation. A state law, abolished in 2003, still held that two-thirds of school funding should come from the state.  A popular program, abolished in 2018, still kept class sizes small and offered extra supports to children living in poverty to help them succeed academically.  Overall, according to the Wisconsin Policy Forum, school funding has not kept pace with inflation in Wisconsin since 2009, a major reversal from the early 2000s, when Wisconsin schools were among the best funded in the nation. 

“The situation keeps getting worse and worse and worse, and we’re saying the court needs to give this another look,” says Mandell.

This is where the hopeful part comes in. Like the gerrymandering lawsuit that prompted the Legislature and the governor to pass fair voting maps in Wisconsin, Mandell believes the school funding lawsuit could trigger major legislative reform. As in the gerrymandering case, “the court’s job is to tell the Legislature, ‘What you have here is not good enough,’ and then give them a short window to fix it,” Mandell says.

It’s not the court’s job to come up with a new funding formula, but if the governor and the Legislature can’t agree, it could impose its own solution.

As the November elections approach, ushering in a new Legislature and a new governor, there’s a real opportunity for change. 

“There is growing momentum and understanding of what the problem is, and what the issue is, on both sides of the aisle,” says DuBois Bourenane. 

She and the other public school advocates in her organization are deeply disappointed that the governor and the Legislature failed to hammer out a deal to give more money to schools, after dangling the idea at the end of the last session. “It’s just criminal that they’re even willing to entertain the idea of sending these kids back to school with nothing again,” she says. “We’ve got 70-plus districts going to referendum again this fall … over a third of our districts went to referendum this calendar year.” 

DuBois Bourenane agrees with Mandell that the lawsuit could spur a breakthrough. 

“I’m just glad that everybody’s talking about it,” she says, “and I hope that they’re paying very close attention to what’s actually possible if we elect people who all agree that we have to fix this broken problem.” 

Three states this year have enacted laws that require or allow schools to use mobile, wearable, wireless or silent panic alarms to quickly summon emergency responders.

The new laws in Illinois, Virginia and West Virginia bring the number of states with such laws to 13, with 10 of them acting since 2023. Another dozen states have legislation pending.

Known as Alyssa’s Law, the measures are named for 14-year-old Alyssa Alhadeff, one of 17 people killed during the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Make Our Schools Safe, a nonprofit founded by Alhadeff’s mother, has advocated for the legislation.

Although all the laws are grouped under the Alyssa’s Law name, they involve different technologies. While some of the laws require schools to use a particular device, others just allow schools to consider implementing some sort of emergency alert system.

Texas, for example, requires silent panic alert technology in classrooms, while Utah mandates that certain members of the school staff wear mobile alert devices. Virginia allows school boards to equip employees with wearable silent panic alarms, but doesn’t require it. The laws also differ in how the devices connect with police or other emergency responders. Funding mechanisms also differ from state to state.

The cost of such systems varies. But several years ago, the school board in Gwinnett County, Georgia, the largest in the state, approved $7 million to purchase the CrisisAlert system from CENTEGIX, an Atlanta-based technology company that provides emergency response systems to schools and hospitals. The CrisisAlert system provides school staff members with a wearable button that can be used to call for help.

A report released earlier this year by CENTEGIX found that 88% of the more than 346,000 alerts generated by its wearable panic-button systems during the 2025-2026 school year involved everyday issues such as fights and students leaving campus without permission.

Ten percent of the alerts were medical emergencies and 2% were for suspicious behavior or a campuswide emergency.

“Wearable incident response badges help reduce delays by enabling staff to discreetly initiate alerts from anywhere on campus,” the report states. “Their value comes not only from speed, but from their ability to deliver clear, reliable communication.”

But Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, a consulting firm, said the fact that relatively few of the alerts were for emergencies suggests that schools should not be mandated to use panic buttons or similar technologies.

Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at rsequeira@stateline.org.

We examine the potential fallout from proposed changes to the Head Start program, increased danger as students return to school, a tornado that devastated a Wisconsin bus contractor, and updates from NAPT and TSD Conference.

Parker Muirbrook, strategic sales director at EverDriven, discusses new research and real-world examples that show how alternative transportation assists both district financials and student needs by providing safe and consistent school transportation.

Read more about special needs.

This episode is brought to you by Transfinder.

Message from School Radio.

Conversation with EverDriven. 

 

 

Stream, subscribe and download the School Transportation Nation podcast on Apple Podcasts, Deezer, iHeartRadio, Spotify and YouTube.

The post (STN Podcast E322) Building Trust: Alternative Transportation Supports Consistent Education Access appeared first on School Transportation News.

The University of Wisconsin-Platteville is asking students to voluntarily submit their vaccination status as the number of measles cases continues to rise in southwestern Wisconsin.

The post UW-Platteville asks if students are vaccinated for measles as regional cases rise appeared first on WPR.

Students in the Menasha Joint School District are returning to school Monday, a little more than a month after an EF-3 tornado ripped through their community.

The post Menasha schools welcoming students back a month after EF-3 tornado appeared first on WPR.

As campuses across Wisconsin welcome back students, Layla Merrifield, president of the Wisconsin Technical College System, spoke with "Wisconsin Today" about enrollment, artificial intelligence and “subpar” state aid.

The post Wisconsin technical colleges says some high demand programs have 2-3 year waiting list appeared first on WPR.

As people around the world mourn the recent death of legendary singer and songwriter Dolly Parton, children in western Wisconsin will soon benefit from her legacy of philanthropy and support of early literacy.

The post Libraries bring Dolly Parton’s free book program to western Wisconsin appeared first on WPR.

Superintendent Brenda Cassellius says this school year there will be a renewed focus on reading proficiency, building upgrades --- particularly for schools located on the city’s North Side --- and transparency.

The post Here are 5 things to watch for in Milwaukee Public Schools this year appeared first on WPR.

Introducing a new story series from author Gabrielle Marie Kelley, a school bus dispatcher for Irving Independent School District in Texas. The story advisor is Fredrick Tottenham, student safety specialist with Irving ISD. 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 series will resume on the second Tuesday of each month.

Hi. My name is Calvin, and I am a bus driver for Ervens Independent School District in Ervens, Texas. I’ve been driving for nine years, and by now, you’d think I’d have everything figured out. Well, you’d be wrong.

You see, my anxiety is a constant passenger, and without permission, it rides along whenever it wants. Things are always changing around here. Routes and rules disappear like ghosts and reappear in dierent forms, only to haunt me
until they become familiar.

I have a girlfriend named Sasha. Olive skin, beautiful ebony locs, and a smile that could stop a fleet. She always knows the right thing to say and her touch washes away the stress of any day. She is something, alright, but she is not the only special lady in my life.

There’s also Christina.

I know what you’re thinking. You named your bus? Yeah, I know it’s sort of odd. But I’m sort of an odd guy. Besides, if you spend enough early mornings sitting behind the wheel, hearing the low hum of the bus speak into the quiet and dark streets, you start to feel like your bus has a personality of its own.

Christina does.

And when it comes to student safety, her personality shines as bright as her yellow coat. She hears everything. And sometimes I swear she knows things before I do. Don’t believe me? Well, you’ll see for yourself, I’m sure.

Right now, I’m standing in front of the dispatch counter, waiting to grab my smart tablet. Beads of sweat forming on my forehead while I try to focus on the cinema that Benjamin Stevens, known as Ben to fellow drivers, is recounting. His flailing expressions reveal armpits that have also succumbed to the summer’s heat. I cross my arms as he gets to the end of his story and I think to myself, Christina would never allow such a thing.

“Cal! You should have seen it! My crossover mirror flew—”

“Mr. Stevens. In my office, please.” Mr. Pottenham, the safety specialist, calls with a stern expression.

With his arms frozen in gestures, Ben looks at Mr. Pottenham, smiling sheepishly. I wring my hands and say, “Well, I guess I’ll catch you later Ben!”

Would I see him later? The safety of our students was no laughing matter, and the look on the safety specialist’s face proved it.

But I have enough problems of my own, don’t I? My nerves are all over the place ever since Sasha stood in the doorway this morning and said, “We need to talk.”

Maybe she wants to talk about our prolonged engagement. Perhaps it’s the dishes I left in the sink last night. Maybe it’s something deeper. God, I hope she’s not pregnant.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Calvin, ready for your PM route?” Ms. Bineht, the dispatcher asks chipperly as she reaches for my smart tablet and keys.

I greet her and Ms. Debbie, the other dispatcher, and quickly make way for other drivers to do the same. I dash to the parking lot to escape the hustle and bustle of animated drivers and to keep my promise. Christina hates it when I’m late.

She is parked in her usual spot, facing me. I wave inconspicuously and a driver with her back to Christina thinks the greeting is meant for her. Christina’s left windshield wiper rises and then falls without a squeak before the driver turns.

I climb the steps of the bus to put away my backpack so that I can start the exterior inspection. Christina’s odometer beeps and flashes: 7 MIN.

“I know, I know. I’m on it, girl.”

I dismount the bus and inspect the front, the passenger’s side, and then I go around the back. I close the back door and just like a phantom, Ben appears and is so close he’s almost kissing my lips.

“Man, you’re not going to believe your ears!”

I swear, all the saliva in his mouth lands on my upper lip. I’m sure this counts as a French kiss. Second base, minimum.

“…And they wrote me up for that!”

Aggressively wiping my mouth, I reply, “A slap on the wrist for attempted murder?” His face says that, unlike his saliva, my joke didn’t land.

“Listen, I’m sorry Ben. I really am. But my route starts in less than seven minutes. Glad you’re still with us, buddy—And the students, too.”

I wink and pat his shoulder. He relaxes but his demeanor is screaming for a more sympathetic ear.

I perform the interior inspection and then I climb into the driver’s seat and turn the key.

Nothing.

“Come on, girl. What’s the deal?”

Again. Nothing.

The doors slowly swing open.

What is it?

I exit the bus with my back to Christina’s doors and the smart tablet in my hands. I look to my left. Nothing is out of place. I look to my right: Christina’s passenger side. I go around the back and as soon as I turn to the other side of the bus, it dawns on me: I forgot to perform the driver-side inspection. I must have accidentally tapped “Next” when Ben startled me. Thanks, Ben.

No. Thanks, Christina.

“Alright girl, let’s try this again.”

Her engine roars awake and the doors close.

As I exit the bus lot, the radio crackles with excitement and then Ms. Debbie’s voice comes through, loud and clear:

Base to all drivers! Base to all drivers! A 9-32 is in effect. Please avoid Culter Road and Pits. This area is blocked due to a 9-32 at the pharmacy on the corner. Please avoid this area.

My heart dropped into a bottomless pit in my stomach. What would an active shooter want with the local pharmacy?

Thankfully, for the students’ safety, my route is in the opposite direction, but my satisfaction quickly fades into a sickening sensation: The pharmacy on Culter and Pits—Sasha works there.

Ask Your Team:
What steps can you take to avoid distractions while performing pre-trip inspections?

---

Next Stop: Episode 2
Follow the Yellow Brick Line—Proper student loading and unloading

---

© 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. Published by permission through School Transportation News.

The post Episode 1: Roll, Roll, Roll, No Bus! appeared first on School Transportation News.

A Racine Unified school board member --- and candidate for the state assembly --- is facing a formal complaint after attacking his opponent and other women online using a derogatory and profane slur.

The post Complaint filed against Racine school board member, state Assembly candidate following profane post against women appeared first on WPR.

School districts focus on service and safety amidst students returning to school nationwide and new research on cellphone distraction among motorists. Plus, the National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services reiterated its support of lap/shoulder seatbelts on school buses.

Board Certified Behavior Analyst Patrick Mulick, the director of student engagement at Auburn School District in Washington state, and an upcoming fan-favorite TSD Conference keynote speaker, brings a voice of clarity and care to safely and appropriately transporting students with special needs, as well as supporting their independence.

Read more about special needs.

This episode is brought to you by Transfinder.

Message from School Radio.

Message from EverDriven. 

 

 

Stream, subscribe and download the School Transportation Nation podcast on Apple Podcasts, Deezer, iHeartRadio, Spotify and YouTube.

The post (STN Podcast E321) The Mission: Supporting Education & Independence for Students with Special Needs appeared first on School Transportation News.

RAYMOND — When Jeff Peterson was hired as principal of Raymond School in 2021, he was coming home to the K-8 school he attended as a child in the small Racine County community where his family has lived for generations.

The 30-year education veteran said at a state hearing this year that he’d taken the job to “finish out my career” in what he called his “dream job.” Peterson’s first year review was full of praise and included a raise. His review also noted teacher complaints to the board had all but stopped.

That changed after the 2022 elections saw the conservative community’s school board taken over by far right-wing figures allied with groups such as Moms for Liberty. Leading the new majority was Gwen Keller, now McCutcheon, who was aligned with Art Binhack, head of the Wisconsin chapter of the right-wing group Convention of States, an organization that pushes states to call a constitutional convention to limit federal power.

Audrey Kostuch had already been on the board since 2021. She was present for Peterson’s hiring and had never publicly said anything negative about him. That changed only after Keller’s election and Dr. Michael Garvey took over as superintendent.

By April 2023, Peterson was put on a professional improvement plan that included a structured timeline but lacked specific metrics by which he would be measured. On September 27, 2023, the board voted 4-1 to issue a preliminary notice of non-renewal, and the next day, Garvey and a few sheriff’s deputies escorted him out of the building. Peterson was told not to speak to anyone.

A final school board hearing on whether to proceed with Peterson’s non-renewal was set for December 2023. In the weeks between, his personnel file began circulating through a Moms for Liberty Facebook page as evidence, campaign organizers claimed, that he’d sexualized and groomed children.

Peterson, who is gay, filed discrimination and retaliation complaints with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development after he was put on administrative leave. The department found probable cause in November 2024, and a seven-day administrative hearing was held earlier this year. A ruling isn’t expected until 2027. 

Peterson has also filed a federal lawsuit, currently stayed pending the DWD decision, and recently amended it to add former Village President Kari Morgan and Moms for Liberty’s Joann Koenecke as individual respondents.

Neither of the accusations lodged against Peterson was true. Records entered at the DWD hearing show that a campaign by the board’s new majority built its case against Peterson by taking a single staff activity that was investigated and closed and stretching it into something it never was.

Kostuch, McCutcheon, Morgan, Binhack, and Koenecke did not respond to requests for comment or answer questions about what drove them to spread unverified allegations of child abuse. 

The scavenger hunt as it actually happened

In August 2022, Peterson organized a single-day scavenger hunt for staff during inservice week, a team-building exercise meant to familiarize new hires with the community. Among the 20 tasks, staff were sent to take a photo at the local fireworks store, with a local minister, and in front of Peterson’s childhood home. 

Two of the twenty items offered 25 bonus points for a photo “of a student in their swimming pool” and for “reading a book to a student in their bedroom, or under a tree.” Nothing in the instructions told staff to visit a child’s home uninvited or ask them to change clothes.

Staff who took part posted about the day on social media afterward, calling it “memorable” and “fun.” A district secretary filed a complaint that September citing several concerns, including the scavenger hunt, and an outside attorney the district hired that fall substantiated a narrow version of it: Some staff had photographed students at pools or in bedrooms without the district clearly communicating to parents that the activity was voluntary. 

Peterson received a formal written reprimand in November 2022. It was a real, if clumsily handled, personnel matter, and the district treated it as closed.

A year later, Kostuch told a different story. During a September 2023 visit from the Racine County Sheriff’s Office, prompted by a genuinely threatening letter sent to her home, Kostuch barely discussed the letter itself. 

Instead, she described the scavenger hunt as staff being told to “go to a student’s house that has a swimming pool, ask them to put their swimming suits on and take pictures of them in the swimming pool with their suits on,” then to “go to the student’s house and ask them to put their pajamas on and go into their bedroom and sit on the bed and read them a story.” None of that was in the instructions. 

“So, okay, you’ve got the same expression I do,” Kostuch told the deputy. “What the? I don’t like to say it, but some of the things that he’s done, I look at him and think, are you a child groomer?” 

Under cross-examination at the hearing, she acknowledged she’d seen the actual instructions only once.

Making the file public

Sometime after Kostuch talked with the deputy, Peterson’s personnel file was posted on the Moms for Liberty Facebook page, with no explanation of how it got there.

Obtaining a public school official’s personnel file requires an open records request. The affected individual is notified, and they have the opportunity to object. The original request was submitted in August 2023, and the file was released before the district alerted Peterson in early October. 

He responded on Oct. 9 that he would file a court action to prevent the release of his personnel file. Ultimately, he didn’t file because the file had already been released, and there wasn’t anything further he could do.

Documents presented at Peterson’s DWD hearing show that Morgan, the then-village president, was searching for a way to oust Peterson but had no jurisdiction over the school district. And, for reasons that remain unclear, she didn’t want her name on the request.

Binhack, a Raymond resident who’d run for the school board twice and lost both times, had spent the prior year building exactly the kind of relationship that made this possible. He campaigned alongside Keller, texting her immediately after the April 2023 election that the board had “the majority, 3-2,” and floating that she could become president. 

“I am hoping for that,” she replied. 

He had standing as an ordinary citizen and no obvious tie to the board members who actually wanted the file. Submitting the open records request under his name meant no public record would connect Raymond’s village president acting outside her authority to a campaign against a school employee.

Metadata on the electronic file later confirmed Morgan wrote the request, and Binhack didn’t dispute the arrangement at the DWD hearing earlier this year. 

“She asked me to file the open records request,” he testified, adding that Morgan supplied a list of specific names to include that he didn’t recognize. “I didn’t know many of the names.”

After receiving Peterson’s personnel file, Morgan drafted a cover letter in which she worked to connect her alleged dots, calling Peterson’s conduct “sexualization of children and things that border on child grooming.” 

Specifically, the letter introduces the district’s “issues” by saying they existed prior to Peterson taking the helm of the school but “have become much worse since he has been principal of the school.” Morgan’s letter urges the public to “evaluate the file of Jeff Peterson and decide” that “tolerance is an admirable mindset, but the time for tolerance has ended.” It condemns Peterson supporters as standing “for a dysfunctional school staff environment and (who) support child grooming.” 

Morgan then put the file and cover letter onto a flash drive and sent it around the community. By October 2023, the letter was posted by Koenecke to the Racine County Moms for Liberty Facebook page. Koenecke since August 2023 had been in direct contact with former school board member McCutcheon. Koenecke also passed it to a local television reporter at FOX 6 within days. 

When Garvey was asked by local reporters to authenticate the accompanying letter, he said it “did not originate from my office.”

What families saw

Some parents of Raymond students spoke up and out about Peterson being targeted and what it was doing to the community and to students.

Nicki O’Brien, a former Raymond parent, watched Peterson get walked out that day in late September 2023. 

“Whatever the hell is happening is not okay,” she told Racine County Eye a few weeks later, “and watching it all unfold was disturbing.”

Megan Rios, whose husband is Mexican and served as PTO president while her children were open-enrolled at Raymond, said the atmosphere reached the students themselves. 

“There was a level of bigotry and hatred brought into the walls of the school, and the kids picked up on it, saying racist things like Mexicans are lazy and worthless,” Rios is quoted in the same  Racine County Eye article. 

She said she watched something change in her daughter that year and pulled her out at the end of the 2022-23 school year, once it became clear Peterson himself wouldn’t survive it. 

“Her light is back,” Rios described her daughter, after enrolling her elsewhere.

Morgan, who pulled her own children from Raymond at the end of the 21-22 school year, said it was because of parents like Rios. 

“Anyone who meets Jeff knows he’s gay, and so what?” she told Racine County Eye in December 2023. “His contract non-renewal is about performance. He’s a great teacher but not a great leader because he doesn’t hold teachers accountable.” 

Yet, just a few weeks prior, Morgan was one of the authors of the file that called Peterson a groomer.

Teacher testimony during the DWD hearing directly disputed the campaign’s characterization of a “toxic staff environment.” A story from Racine County Eye notes a district survey found roughly 70% of respondents rated the teaching staff positively. 

Whatever was driving families like Rios’ out of Raymond, hearing testimony suggests it wasn’t the working relationship between Peterson and his staff and his students. School district data shows that prior to the right-wing takeover of the board in 2022, only about 25 students were open-enrolled out of the district each year. By the 2025-2026 school year, that number had grown to roughly 45, Racine County Eye reported.

What it cost Peterson

Peterson says what the last three years have done to him wasn’t something he could simply ignore or put aside. “It impacted every aspect of my life,” he said. “The things that were said about me are completely untrue, shameful, and hurtful.” 

The accusations followed him as he went through the motions during the day and in his relationships with neighbors and former colleagues. They affected his motivation to just get out of bed. What he says hurt most wasn’t the professional fallout but where it happened. 

“These things were said and done in the same community that I loved, that I lived in, that I grew up in,” he said — the same community that shaped why he became an educator in the first place. 

He describes moving through the world now with his guard up, and he admitted it’s hard not to be a little jaded about work he once found meaningful without a second thought. 

Peterson didn’t land another job for more than a year. Some districts, he believes, never called him back for interviews they might otherwise have offered because they were unwilling to take a chance on someone carrying public accusations tied to children. 

What kept him upright, he says, was people who reached out, “literally on a daily basis for the last three years.” Without them, he said, “I wouldn’t have survived.”

No one has explained why

Binhack’s notes from January 2023 show McCutcheon discussing ending Peterson’s contract that June and a longer-term plan to install a different superintendent candidate, months before the file circulated. 

And, at a December 2022 retreat, Garvey told the room outright that no one in Raymond was “teaching woke” and no critical race theory was taught anywhere in Wisconsin. 

Nothing in Peterson’s curriculum ever changed. What was well known, even as he kept his private life separate from his job, was that he is gay.

The campaign against him was a solution in search of a problem that never existed and could cost the Raymond School District, or its insurer, far more than a quiet non-renewal would have. Legal costs have already run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and a ruling against the district by either the state or in a federal court could add substantially more in legal fees and potential damages. 

With Morgan and Koenecke now named directly in Peterson’s federal complaint, both could be held personally liable alongside the district if a court agrees with what the record already shows: that Raymond school board members had a lawful, quiet way to end Peterson’s employment, and chose instead to manufacture a reason to smear his reputation. 

Kostuch, meanwhile, remains on the board, and is up for re-election in April 2027.

Dolly Parton, the personification of Tennessee music, died Tuesday at age 80 after decades of entertaining the world.

Parton’s nephew, Bryan Seaver, delivered the news of her death in a video for the family, sparking mourning from her birthplace of Locust Ridge in the mountains of East Tennessee across the state to Nashville, where she found fame, and around the world, where her name brought people happiness in her deeds and passion for life.

“Sadness lies with us, but not with Dolly. Dolly has lived in the light, and is in the arms of Jesus, surely met by (husband) Carl, her parents and countless others who have watched her and longed for her to meet them in the heavens,” said Seaver, who led her security detail for a decade.

Parton opened doors for generations of singers and songwriters from all walks of life, giving people hope that “anything was possible,” Seaver said. “She never saw a door she couldn’t open, and the doors she opened made and changed history.”

The daughter of a sharecropper and farmer, Parton asked that she be buried in a field of cotton, he said, “because after a life wearing heavy rhinestones, she finally deserves to be comfortable and have some rest.”

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee called her “Tennessee’s favorite daughter” after learning of her death.

“Dolly Parton was one of a kind, who loved people, her work, her family, and her Lord. Tennessee has forever been changed — enhanced — by her, and will never be quite the same without Dolly,” Lee said in a statement.

Through her business network, Parton has an estimated net worth of $650 million and used her considerable wealth for philanthropic causes. 

“I’m kind of addicted to the feeling of giving,” she told People magazine in 2021, “knowing that I’m doing something good for someone else.”

The Dollywood Foundation created Dolly’s Imagination Library in 1995, which donates some 10 million books to children each year to bolster literacy.

“They call me the Book Lady,” she said in a 2006 interview with The Washington Post.

She started The Buddy Program in the 1990s, offering $500 to Sevier County middle school students to stay in school and graduate in Tennessee, eventually lowering the dropout rate. The foundation also offers $15,000 scholarships annually to five Sevier County High School seniors “who have a dream they wish to pursue and who can successfully communicate their plan and commitment to realize their dreams.”

Parton raised $12.5 million to help the victims of a 2016 wildfire in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that devastated cities such as Gatlinburg and $1 million in response to Hurricane Helene in the East Tennessee mountains. She also gave $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center during the COVID-19 pandemic to support development of the Moderna vaccine and filmed herself receiving a shot to encourage people to get vaccinated.

Parton received the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in 2022 for years of charitable work, which included putting together a team to help her support favorite causes, such as the Imagination Library.

Early this year, officials renamed the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in her honor after she made a donation described as “generational and transformational.”

The fourth of 12 children, the country music icon debuted on the Grand Ole Opry at age 13 after growing up singing in church. 

She moved to Nashville and broke in with Porter Wagoner on his show in the 1960s, then went out on her own and recorded hits such as “Joshua,” “Jolene,” “I Will Always Love You,” “Here You Come Again,” “9 to 5,” and “Islands in the Stream.” Her songwriting skills and unmistakable voice enabled her to win 10 Grammys and earn a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1999.

Parton starred in movies such as “9 to 5,” “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” and “Steel Magnolias” before opening Dollywood theme park in Sevierville, which led to the creation of a network of theme parks.

Early in her career, Parton’s appearance caught people’s attention, but she also displayed a business acumen that led her to an RCA contract and the decision to protect the publishing rights to her song catalogue, allowing her to collect millions of dollars in royalties over the years.

Parton opened Dollywood in 1986, saying in her biography, “I always thought that if I made it big or got successful at what I had started out to do, I wanted to come back to my part of the country and do something great, something that would bring a lot of jobs into this area.”

The Dollywood Company has multiple parks, including Dollywood’s Splash Country, Dolly Parton’s Stampede, the Dream More Resort and Spa, and her 50% share of the company was believed to be worth $165 million, Forbes reported in 2021.

In addition to the Country Music Hall of Fame, Parton was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, an honor she turned down at first because she didn’t think she “earned that right” but then relented after finding out that musicians outside the rock genre received the recognition.

Parton was a member of the Grand Ole Opry for more than half a century and Time magazine named her to its list of 100 most influential people five years ago.

Phones have been prohibited during class time since July 1. But some parents say the new law doesn’t go far enough --- they would like to see all screen use limited in classrooms. 

The post Parent group pushing Madison schools to limit all screens in classrooms appeared first on WPR.

The author of a newly approved federal grant said this is an opportunity to reverse a critical shortfall of special education teachers in school districts across the state

The post DPI hopes federal grant will help stop ‘revolving door’ of Wisconsin special education teachers appeared first on WPR.

The U.S. Department of Education has launched an investigation into Milwaukee Public Schools related to the district allegedly considering race when it comes to "disciplinary decisions."

The post Federal investigation into Milwaukee Public Schools related to disciplinary decisions and race appeared first on WPR.