Central Alberta school jurisdictions are wondering if a regional student bus system, or more partnerships, could be in their future.
Last week, the province announced a new student transportation task force to look at student safety, costs, eligibility, partner collaboration and the responsibilities of school authorities and industry partners.
Task force members will examine busing for students attending publicly funded schools, and will consider various delivery models and services for students with disabilities.
The task force will provide recommendations to Education Minister Adriana LaGrange in the fall.
Jayson Lovell, Wolf Creek Public Schools superintendent, said he expects the task force to recommend changes that address how the province has changed.
“When we talk about sparsity and distance in rural Alberta, the urbanization of our province is, I think, one of the major shifts. We see more families moving to larger urban centres. Sparsity and distance with rural families continues to grow.
“When you look at that alone, there needs to be some consideration for how this system can meet the needs of all Albertans,” Lovell said.
He said the five per cent funding increase from the province announced in the spring is helpful, but Wolf Creek’s transportation budget is projected to be $5.3 million for the next school year.
“It’s a big item in our budget, and it’s an important item, in that you want to make sure we provide service that is safe and is efficient and adequate.”
Lovell said co-operative arrangements or partnerships might be a positive step towards increasing efficiencies.
Della Ruston, associate superintendent of systems services at Red Deer Public Schools, also hopes the task force will look into regional busing systems.
“Co-operative busing between school divisions makes sense to me, and I know we’ve talked about that before,” Ruston said.
“School boards across Alberta have been asking for a review of transportation services for a long time. Everybody is working really hard to create those efficiencies, but there’s only so much you can do.”
About 25 per cent of Red Deer public students ride buses, and the district’s annual transportation budget is $2.8 million.
“It’s always a challenge to come in with a close-to-balanced budget,” Ruston said.
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For the first time, rural students with Chinook’s Edge School Division will face a $200 annual busing fee this fall.
“We’ve done everything we believe we possibly can, relative to efficiencies, and we’re still in a deficit position, between $1 million and $1.2 million every year,” said Chinook’s Edge superintendent Kurt Sacher.
He said right now, the only way his large rural division can be more efficient is to increase the length of bus rides.
“Our ride times are already, in our opinion, too high in some areas. When you’ve got little kids riding an hour, and in some locations, more than an hour, each way to school, it’s just an unreasonable expectation.”
He said how to transport students with COVID-19 health restrictions in place will be another “curve ball” for jurisdictions.
“We need more clarity on how that will play out. It could complicate our challenges further.”
The task force has 13 members. They will be supported by officials from Alberta Education and Alberta Transportation. Lethbridge-East MLA Nathan Neudorf will chair the group.
“There’s lots of different ways to look at transportion, and I think it’s great to see the province take a hard look at that, and engaging the right people in the discussion,” Sacher said.
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
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