Now that a request for courtesy busing service until the end of June has been quashed by the school board, Heather Wozney is resigned to the fact her son and at least 10 other Heather Park elementary school students will be riding to school in private vehicles.
Trustees voted 6-1 at Tuesday's public meeting to support the September decision that ended bus service for those students who live near the Chief Lake Road area within the catchment area of Nukko Lake elementary school, but have chosen to attend Heather Park.
The Heather Park parents wanted the same extension until the end of the school year that Miworth parents received, which allowed 11 students to be bused to their choice school, Heritage elementary, despite the fact Miworth is in Quinson elementary's catchment area.
"I really feel a precedent was set with Miworth and I don't see how it's going to cost $20,000 more to reroute the buses - the buses are already stopping at these stops," Wozney.
"There are already other buses out there, so the supervision is there.
"We were told if they drop them at Kelly Road they have to provide supervision to walk them over to Heather Park. Why do they have to walk the kids over? There are kids that walk there to go home for lunch or home after school.
'The best fit for my child is Heather Park. It's half the distance to travel and there is so much more opportunity at the school he's at."
School District 57 secretary treasurer Bryan Mix told the board there would be a cost of $20,000 ($216 per school day) to change the bus routes, as well as a $2,400 cost for supervision of those students if the Heather Park service was extended until the end of June. The board has already overspent its transportation budget by $500,000.
Board chair Sharel Warrington said she sympathizes with the Heather Park parents but the additional cost was enough to sway trustees to deny the parents' proposal. "There are differences between the Heather Park-Nukko Lake situation and the Miworth situation," said board chair Sharel Warrington.
"In this case, the Nukko Lake situation does not fit the requirements. Cost factors were definitely implicated and in our case, courtesy busing is provided at no additional cost or if there are no necessary changes to routes. That was part of the issue for some trustees, including myself."
Trish Bella was the only trustee who supported the Heather Park request.
"I just felt when we made the decision to reinstate Miworth, all the families should have been reconsidered," said Bella. "They all received the same letter at the same time [telling them the bus service would be dropped in September] and so if we were going to do it for one, we should do it for everyone in the group."
Bella said the board still doesn't know what the government's new funding formula for transportation will look like and that has created more uncertainty as the district negotiates a new busing contract with Diversified Transportation.
