Getting their children to school will become significantly tougher for a handful of families east of Giscome if School District 57 follows through on a plan to scale back school bus service in the area.
About five families in the area have received letters from the district saying the elementary school bus will travel no further east than Bowron Lakes Road and the high school bus will go no further than the community of Giscome.
As it stands, the elementary school bus goes as far as Sinclair Mills and the high school bus turns around at Bowron Lakes Road.
The proposed changes will reduce the one-way trip for high school service by about 35 kilometres and the elementary school service by 20 km and save the school district a significant amount of money but at great cost to parents like Longworth resident Gundula Rabien.
Her daughter has a cognitive disability and severe health issues prompting the district to recommend she attend a school in Prince George, which means she would have to take the high school bus.
"I would have to bring her one way, one-and-a-half hours and that just doesn't work," Rabien said. "I can't drive six hours a day just so my daughter can visit school."
Home schooling is out of the question due to a lack of broadband.
"The one thing they keep on mentioning is the schools of the future won't be school buildings as such, it's going to be completely different," Rabien said.
"Well yes, that might all be, but that is the future and it isn't there yet and they can't take away the existing system as long as there is no replacement."
The parents have been given 45 days to appeal to the school board and are in the process of coming up with suggestions that would save the school district money while also maintaining the service.
Proposals include using the same bus to transport the elementary and high school students. It would mean some rescheduling so high school students could reach Prince George secondary on time.
School district superintendent Brian Pepper declined to comment on the issue because it has gone to appeal. However, during the marathon school closure meeting in March 2010, trustees were told the service between Sinclair Mills and Giscome-Willow River cost $57,000 a year.
The school district has budgeted nearly $4.7 million for student transportation this year while the province's grant for the service has held fast at about $4.2 million since 2002.
Giscome elementary school parent advisory council president Faellen Brandner fears the reductions could be a sign of worse things to come.
"What we're worried about is if they make changes like this, this year, then what's going to happen the following year?" Brandner said. "It's definitely another blow to our rural school."
Adding to the woes, there is also concern the school will be reduced to one portable if less than 23 students are enrolled next year. The expectation had been for 38 students, but Brandner said many families have chosen to send their children to other schools where the facilities are better.
An effort is ongoing to convince the provincial government to build a new "modular" school in Willow River for $1.5 million, compared to $3.2 million for a "bricks and mortar" school, but Brandner said it is contingent on the school district and the regional district reaching an agreement to establish a neighbourhood learning centre at the location.
Under such an arrangement, the school would be used by community groups after classes are finished in exchange for helping to offset the facility's operating cost, most likely in the form of a local service tax.
