Miworth parent Tim Melanson was breathing a sigh of relief Tuesday night after school trustees voted down a district proposal to cancel bus service that allows his son to attend Heritage elementary school.
The issue sparked a lively debate in Tuesday night's board meeting and Melanson was pleased with the board decision to ask school administration to consider extending bus route 17 to include a Heritage stop for the rest of school year.
"It's a big hassle, with a lot of carpooling when you're used to riding the bus, so this is a nice short-term solution for this year," said Melanson. "The school bus goes right by the school anyway, why can't they just drop the kids off. Like [trustee] Trish Bella says, why not try to fill those buses? These policies are not written in stone, they should be looked at."
Trustees had already adopted a policy that allows busing of students only to schools within the catchment area according to where they reside and had planned to end the service in October 2010. But parents complained they weren't given enough notice and the board put off the decision until this September. Miworth is in Quinson elementary's catchment area, but just three students from that community, west of the city, attend that school.
Currently, the bus from Miworth goes to Quinson, then drops students at D.P. Todd secondary school. The bus does not stop at Heritage, which borders D.P. Todd, because Heritage is not in the Miworth catchment area. Because of that, a district staff member is required to provide supervision for those 11 students to walk them across the field to Heritage in the morning and back again to D.P. Todd in the afternoon. That staff member must also remain with the students until the bus arrives at D.P. Todd, 45 minutes after they are dismissed from Heritage.
"I understood it was a bit of a slippery slope, but we're only dealing with the Miworth folks and the courtesy busing piece needs to be re-looked at," said board chairman Lyn Hall, among five trustees who voted down the education services committee recommendation to cancel the courtesy bus service for the 11 Miworth students who attend Heritage.
Trustee Roxanne Ricard, who presented the report to council, said Tuesday's board decision sets a dangerous precedent that could lead to problems for the new board that gets elected Nov. 19.
"There were other parents and families that were denied their courtesy busing this year and those decisions were not reversed," said Ricard.
"It's a very conflicting message and I have some concerns about the financial implications in the long run and what that means in the classroom. There are many choice schools in this district and parents choose to send their children from great distances to schools and they're going to be seeking the same sort of exemption the Miworth parents were able to achieve."
Ricard and Lois Boone were the only trustees who voted to end the Heritage courtesy bus service. Ricard said Tuesday's decision goes against the management plan of senior administration to try to fill Quinson, which is under capacity, in favour of allowing more students at Heritage, which is at capacity and requires three portable classrooms.
"I've fought on this board for three years to take a serious look at transportation," said Ricard. "We are known in the province as having a Cadillac model for transportation. We're overspending to the tune of $500,000. We are not mandated to provide [courtesy] busing.
"If you choose to send your child to a school other than its catchment, the ultimate responsibility for getting that child to school is yours, not ours."
