YMCA, school district formalize after-school program

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Parents appealing district's decision to refuse to bus their children

BY CHUCK VANDENBERG
PCC EDITOR

FORT MADISON - The Fort Madison YMCA has formalized plans for it's after-school programs in the wake of the Fort Madison Community School District's change to its busing program.

The district announced last month that due to a shortage of bus drivers, bus services will be relegated to students K-8 living outside two miles from either elementary school or the middle school and high school students living more than three miles from FMHS.

Due to the restrictions bus service wasn't allowed from the junior high or elementary schools to the YMCA because the facility was within two miles of the schools.

YMCA Executive Director Ryan Wilson and Kim Harmon, the district's Director of Curriculum and Student Services, worked out a 28-E agreement to allow the YMCA to provide services within the schools.

However students will be bused from Richardson to Lincoln where, in addition to the middle school, the YMCA programs will be held.

The distance from the intersection of Avenue E and 14th Street down to Old Hwy. 61 and west to Richardson is exactly two miles to the turn on the 34th Street to the bus stop, by vehicle odometer.

HTC students enrolled in the program will be picked up at Roling Hall on Bus #6 and taken to Lincoln, which is within the two-mile limit.

Cost of the YMCA program is $7 a day and 20-day punch cards can be obtained at the YMCA for $140, with payments made at the Fort Madison Family YMCA. The program lasts from after school until 5:30 p.m. and parents can pick up students using door 1 along the east side of the building at Lincoln and on the north parking lot off Bluff Road at the middle school. Parents should come into the building to pick up children.

At Richardson students will get on bus #39 to ride to Lincoln and will be dropped off at the 14th Street bus stop where YMCA staff will greet the students.

In case of early release due to heat, Richardson students will ride bus #35 to FMMS where they will be dropped off on the north side of the building for the program in the FMMS cafeteria. All other students will follow the same procedures as regular school days.

The change in bus routes prompted an appeal from several parents in the district who disagreed with the schools mapping system and said Google maps and MapQuest both showed their home outside the two-mile barrier.

Shanna Krogmeier spoke to the board at it's last meeting and appealed to the board to take a closer look at the district's mapping software.

In an email last week to the Pen City Current, Krogmeier wrote that her home, according to two mapping systems and her vehicle's odometer, is outside the two-mile limit

"According to Beacon it is 2.187 miles, according to Google it is 2.4, according to my car it is 2.2. I sent an email to the school board and (Superintendent) Dr. Erin Slater and received a response from (Board President) Dr. Tim Wondra and another school board member," Krogmeier wrote.

Krogmeier said Wondra replied that this policy has been in place for a number of years, but the district has been able to extend service, but with the reduced number of drivers, the district had to begin following the policy.

Krogmeier said she was appealing the board's decision to the Iowa State Board of Education.

busing, Fort Madison schools, Pen City Current, YMCA

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