MOUNT VERNON — Wiggin Street Elementary was the featured school at Monday’s Mount Vernon Board of Education meeting. The board formally commended Wiggin Street Battle of the Books team, which won this year’s competition. Denise and Mark Ramser were presented with the Wiggin Street Behind the Scenes award because, principal Lynn Riggenbach said, “They are always there helping us.”
Riggenbach discussed recent improvements to the playground made possible by the Friends of Wiggin Street and Knox County Career Center students and showed photos of the project to widen the driveway and add parking spaces. The Ramsers donated the property needed, grant money funded the paving and volunteers from the community completed other work related to the project.
Parent Heidi Robinson addressed the board during the public participation portion of the meeting. She told the board the elimination of high school busing has caused a lot of problems for parents, especially those living on rural routes. She said it has been a hardship for working parents to get their children to and from school and also expressed safety concerns about the number of inexperienced drivers on the road. Robinson gave the board some suggestions as to how the problem might be alleviated, which included running vans or smaller buses on some routes.
Robinson said she often sees buses that do not have many passengers. She asked if it would be more cost effective to run vans or smaller buses on some routes where ridership doesn’t merit a large bus. She also suggested that if middle school buses are not filled to capacity, high school students could ride in the empty seats, perhaps for a small fee.