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Parents asked to pony up for bussing

Parents of children enrolled in schools outside of their designated neighbourhood are being asked to pay $20 a month for bussing
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Bussing costs continue to rise in the Coast Mountains School District

Parents of children enrolled in schools outside of their designated neighbourhood received an unwelcome surprise among the usual notices that came home on the first day of school last week – a letter from the school district demanding $20 a month or $200 a year in order for their child to take a bus.

Approximately 140 students out of the nearly 1,800 riders district-wide are affected by the notice. Particularly affected were parents with children attending Ecole Mountainview and Uplands, both located on the bench.

The fee, said Coast Mountains School District (CMSD) school superintendent Nancy Wells, is to help balance the school district's budget and off-set riding student transportation costs. Estimated revenues generated by the out-of-catchment rider fee is $28,000. Nearly $2.2 million this year is marked for student transportation costs, and that figure is anticipated to continue to rise with the increase in fuel costs.

“All over the province now there's all sorts of things happening with the cost of bussing because it's so expensive and all of our budgets are so tight,” said Wells.

“Some districts have instituted what you call a total fee for service, so if you ride a bus you pay to ride the bus, period.”

She said the school board “did not want to go there,” but decided on implementing a fee for students enrolled outside of their neighbourhood schools instead.

“We have kids in the horseshoe that go to Uplands, and we have French immersion students from all over everywhere that go to Ecole Mountainview,” said Wells.

The notice indicates the fee is for “students enrolled in schools outside of their catchment areas,” leading parents of students at Ecole Mountainview, which is French immersion, to argue the school is not a neighbourhood school and that its catchment area is the entire city and surrounding area.

But the district regards Ecole Mountainview as a “school of choice”, meaning it is subject to the fee.

“The point is we have to pay to take those kids up there,” said Wells. “It gets down to numbers.”

And while some criticism has been levelled at the timing of the notice – the first day of school – Wells explained that traditionally all notices regarding fees are issued that day.

“We always send out the fee schedules, and anything people are going to have to pay, the day that school starts,” said Wells.

“It's a hard one. As I said, there are districts in the province where you pay for any kind of bussing. Our board didn't want to go there, but it's a budget decision and it's tough,” she said. “This board needed to balance the budget.

“Every little bit has to add up to the balanced budget. We all wish we had money enough to balance without doing these kinds of cuts, but the point is that we don't,” said Wells.

There's no indication that a student will be left without a bus ride to school if their parents are unable to pay the fee.

Wells is urging parents to contact school principals if they have a specific issue.

The school district already charges a bus fee for students attending private schools or schools outside of its jurisdiction.

The board bills private schools and post secondary students $250 for part time and $500 for full time students.

The provincial francophone school district, which runs Jack Cook school on Terrace’s southside,  was billed $1,142 per rider last year because the CMSD  provides additional  bus for its students.

School district secretary treasurer Alanna Cameron said that amount will “likely continue to increase as our costs increase from year to year.”

The fee comes at a time when the school district has revamped its bus system.

For example, last year one school bus traveled to Ecole Mountainview but this year as many as seven drop off and pick up students there each day.