Hybrid vans help unhoused students get to school, more than 1 year after MPS purchased the vehicles

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) is offering a new way for unhoused students to get to and from school – more than one year after securing its vehicles.

For months, 20 hybrid vans sat in the district’s parking lot, unused, but at the start of this school year – it’s been a way to help get kids inside the classroom. Currently half of the vehicles are in use, with each van picking up around seven to 12 kids every morning. The district says the rest of the vans will be implemented on school routes in the coming months.

“The most difficult and the most prolonged period that we were waiting for was to get the adequate insurance given that they’re MPS owned vehicles but then they’re being insured by the contractors themselves,” said David Fifarek, MPS’s transportation director.

Nearly 5,000 students in MPS are unhoused, and more than half of the district’s students face chronic absenteeism. Fifarek says aid money from the pandemic helped the district purchase the vehicles outright for just over $1 million.

“One of these vehicles I think we're scheduled to go to Kenosha for. It’s one of these niche services where you wouldn’t be able to provide services really easily any other way,” said Fifarek.

Currently, the district uses about 150 vehicles that are not yellow buses. Fifarek says if the van service is successful, the district hopes to add more alternative, energy efficient vehicles. The district hopes to expand its use of the vans to apprenticeships and field trips in the future.

“The capital expenditure being lower than a yellow bus, but it is a hybrid vehicle so it is very fuel efficient and of course, us being able to buy these vehicles at wholesale and then contract out for the labor saves us money in that regard,” said Fifarek.

Drivers say it’s simple. Every student deserves a chance to learn.

“They love it. I talk to them. I talk too much, so I talk to kids, and they are happy. They can’t wait until we pick them up and take them to school,” said Osama Kabashi, one of the van drivers.