MARSHFIELD, WI (WSAU) — There’ll be a new bus service taking students to school in Marshfield beginning next school year. That’s following a vote by Marshfield’s Board of Education this week to award the district’s transportation contract to Kobussen Buses Ltd. of Kaukauna.
Mark Konrardy chairs the district’s ‘Facilities, Safety and Transportation Committee,’ and says that more than 60 vendors were given the chance to bid on the contract, and that the GO Riteway Transportation Group was also in the running for the contract.
“We had met with two bus services,” Konrardy said. “One was Riteway, and the other one was Kobussen Bus. We had a lot of discussion, we interviewed them a month ago, and as a group we looked at Kobussen as being one we’d like to go with.”
Konrardy says Kobussen’s bid came in at about $80,000 a year lower than Riteway, but that the number one consideration was safety. “I think each and every board member sitting on the committee had good feelings with either bus service on the safety of our students. And that was our main focus.”
The new three-year contract runs from 2020 through 2023 for Kobussen, who also holds contracts with about 30 other school districts across the state.
“Kobussen has about a thousand people working for them,” Konrardy explained. “The school district here went back and looked at their references, and the references came back great from all the school districts that they were working for. So that’s where we’re sitting.”
The current transportation provider, Marshfield Bus Service, didn’t submit a bid to continue the contract they’ve had with the district since 1992.
