Transportation fees for Central Okanagan public school students to ride a school bus will go up this year.
However, one trustee says the bigger question is how much longer the school district can fund the existing service.
The finance and planning committee addressed three options from staff to increase the existing $450/per student fees to either $500, $550 or $600 for the 2025-26 school year.
The committee ultimately chose to recommend the $500 increase for board of education approval, but West 麻豆精选 trustee Chantelle Desrosiers said beyond the financial impact that has on parents, it still does not come close to covering the actual cost to maintain the bus service.
Desrosiers acknowledged that more than any other issue, the feedback she receives tends to be dominated by school busing, primarily being the cost and route availability.
"I know even bringing this up, I am going to hear about it, but that's okay. I will probably get some angry calls but we need to have that conversation鈥e need to start thinking about doing something different," she said.
"We are funding the bus service from our operational funding that is supposed to go towards resources in the classroom."
She suggested staff review how many school bus routes are duplicated by BC Transit routes, and look at how the school district and transit service can coordinate services better to facilitate student transportation needs.
Any discussion would be coupled with a separate public campaign ongoing right now for free transit service to be provided to 13-18-year-olds, which the Central Okanagan Board of Education has voted to support.
"If that was to go ahead that would alleviate a great deal of the issue," said trustee Julia Fraser, who has an ex-officio role on the finance and planning committee as the board of education chair.
"Richmond is a similar school district size to ours and they have no school bus service. But while we have a similar student enrolment size, our geography is very different."
The provincial government ended its financial mandate to fund school bus services as a budget cut more than two decades ago, leaving school districts with the option to fund school busing or drop the service.
The Central Okanagan School District adopted a policy to maintain the bus service because of the geographic and travel distance issues that students and parents face in this school district, particularly in the outlying rural areas.
For the 2024-25 school year, the school district has set aside about $4.4 million in operating funds for the bus service, offset by a $600,000 transportation fund grant from the province and student transportation fees which together amount to $2,336,824 in revenue, well below the daily costs to operate and maintain the bus service.
The current transit bus pass monthly cost for students is $45 a month.
The school busing service reached a milestone in this current school year, transporting a record number of 5,317 students on 62 regular routes and 14 inclusive education routes.
Trustee Amy Geistlinger cautioned the best approach to Desrosiers' suggestion is to map out overlapping school bus and transit routes, then consult further with 麻豆精选 Regional Transit before making any changes to the existing service.
"I think you want to talk (with transit) before we start pulling out any school bus support," she said,
Nicole Baker, president of the Central Okanagan Parent Advisory Committee, voiced her frustration that the provincial government continues to ignore the financial need to cover a greater share of school busing costs.
Baker said parents did not make the decisions regarding community growth and where schools have been located but are now left having to deal with the consequences of students living beyond reasonable walking distances of their catchment area schools.
"These are hard decisions that parents face in their own budgets," said Baker. "We already pay the most expensive school busing fees in the province...we need some bigger picture thinking here to address this issue."
The board of education continues to have a financial hardship policy in place to assist parents who are in financial need to cover transportation costs.
The staff has recommended the fee increase would not affect the current rate of $225 for a third and fourth child up to a maximum of $$1,575 per family for the 2025-26 school year.
As well, families have the option to pay the transportation fees on a monthly basis rather than an upfront fee in the fall.
