Trustees to take a look at Miworth busing issue

A quest by a group of Miworth parents to revive busing to Heritage elementary school won further consideration from the school board on Tuesday night, although trustees were not making any promises.

Trustees agreed to refer the matter to the education services committee after hearing from parent Tim Melanson, who asked the board to take a second look at a decision to remove courtesy busing from the community to the school.

Although Miworth is in Quinson elementary's catchment area, just three students from Miworth are attending that school while 11 are being driven to Heritage by their parents.

Up until this year, they took a bus to D.P. Todd secondary school and then took a short walk to Heritage next door, while the high school students from Miworth transferred onto another bus to Prince George Secondary School (PGSS).

"Heritage is Miworth's closest school, Heritage is Miworth's closest catchment area," Melanson said. "When the morning bus goes from Miworth to town on its regular route, it must first cross through the Heritage catchment area to get to Quinson."

A bus with more than enough capacity to carry the Heritage students still picks up high school students in Miworth and takes them to D.P. Todd, Melanson said, while a bus with 50 seats is used to transport the three students from Quinson to Miworth in the afternoon.

"There's been a recent catchment change for the secondary students in Miworth - Miworth students used to get bused to PGSS, now they get bused to D.P. Todd," Melanson said. "Having all Miworth students bused to the same location would be more efficient and cost effective, not to mention very convenient for families both in elementary and secondary school."

Melanson acknowledge that Heritage is operating with high student numbers - last year, it was at 107 per cent capacity and required three portables compared to 49 per cent capacity at Quinson - but maintained Heritage's numbers will fall in the coming years.

After trustees adopted a policy allowing busing of students only to their catchment schools, the school district had intended to end the service to Heritage last year but agreed to wait until this September in response to complaints that parents were not given enough notice.

The issue had been discussed at a education services meeting last week, but trustees agreed to take the matter back to the committee because Melanson had provided some additional information.

There was some discussion over referring it to the policy and governance committee but that idea was turned down because the issue was not about changing policy but determining whether the practice in relation to Miworth is congruent with policy.

Melanson suggested the catchment area be reconfigured, but trustee Lois Boone noted that would leave three students attending Quinson out of catchment.

And if trustees went against policy and granted courtesy busing to the Miworth families, Boone said there would be "literally hundreds" of other parents sending children to choice schools asking for the same break.

"There is no easy answer here," Boone said.

Trustee Roxanne Ricard said Quinson is just as good as Heritage.

"It's interesting that sometimes in the community, one can have perhaps a different reputation but my goodness, the programs and the supports and the staff at Quinson are amazing and so are those at Heritage, but there are a lot of empty seats at Quinson that is part of the issue," Ricard said.