Plans for joint Public and Catholic school bus service underway

EDMONTON – Edmonton Public Schools and Edmonton Catholic Schools have agreed to work together to deliver joint transportation services for both school districts. 

“Our school districts have common transportation challenges,” said Edmonton Public School Board Chair Sarah Hoffman.

“By working together, we will find efficiencies and build a better transportation system that students, families, both school districts, and taxpayers will benefit from.”

“We’ve looked carefully at this, done our due diligence through a feasibility study, and we’re looking forward to working with Edmonton Catholic Schools to make this a reality,” she said.

The two school divisions will together create the Edmonton Student Transportation Authority (ESTA), a separate legal entity with a board of directors with equal representation from both school districts, to provide joint transportation.

“The Edmonton Catholic School District is pleased to be collaborating with the Edmonton Public School District on Phase 1 of the transportation consortium,” said Cindy Olsen, Board Chair for Edmonton Catholic Schools.

“By working together, we hope to reduce ride times for our students, increase efficiencies and lower costs for both school districts,” added Olsen.

The school divisions hope to have the transportation authority in place and ready for implementation by the fall of 2016.

The bus service will be developed in three phases.

The school boards say it it will have between 24 and 28 full-time employees and will be “operated with a single service delivery model, harmonized from the current transportation policies of each of the boards,” explains EPSB in a news release.

“The ESTA will improve efficiency, reduce ride times and reduce costs for both school districts, in the neighbourhood of $2.5 million annually.”

Currently, transportation costs for both jurisdictions combine for total approximate annual expenditures of $55 million. Boards recover about a third of the total transportation costs through bus pass fees. Two-thirds of costs are covered by provincial grants.

“As an independent transportation service provider, ESTA will be better suited to address the gap between available funding and growing transportation costs,” the release reads.

“Creating ESTA is about working together to overcome our collective transportation challenges to benefit students and families in both school districts.”