Polk charter school for kids with special needs in need of funds for buses

LAKE WALES, Fla. - Victory Ridge Academy, a school for kids with mental and physical challenges, is kicking off a half-million-dollar fundraising campaign to fund one of the school's most basic needs: buses.

The campaign is called The Wheels on the Bus.

“Anything helps, large or small. It doesn’t matter to us. We have to get our kids back and forth to school,” Denny Wittman, president of the academy’s board, told FOX 13.

Last year, the Polk County School District decided providing bus transportation to charter schools cost too much money so they discontinued the service. The district did give the academy a dozen older buses to help lighten their load, but they still need help.

A spokesman for Victory Ridge says two out of three students attending the academy need bus transportation because their parents work.

“We’re going to have more reliable buses so we’re going to have to start leasing some brand new buses to go along with the [older] buses,” said Victory Ridge Academy Executive Director Steven Whitaker.

The Academy recently held a charity clay shoot and plans a 1920s gala to raise money.

For more information, visit https://victoryridge.org/wheels/.