CALGARY – Calgary’s public school board overwhelmingly rejected a proposed 60 per cent fee hike Tuesday for parents whose children depend on yellow school buses to get to class.
The board also voted to send the transportation fee report back to administrators to come up with different financial scenarios, rather than proposing to saddle families with an increase that would have amounted to a yearly family maximum of $670.
Calgary Board of Education chairwoman Pat Cochrane said the proposed increase was too much of a burden to put on parents in one year, but noted the more than $8 million needed to bridge a budget gap has to come from somewhere.
The board is grappling with a $61.7-million shortfall and the prospect of eliminating the positions of 358 teachers and support staff.
“Do we hire teachers and aides or do we pay for buses?” said Cochrane. “The CBE only has one pot.”
Trustee Lynn Ferguson agreed the proposed fee increases were too high and expressed concern a steep increase might persuade parents to enrol their students in another school system.
“It’s a huge increase when you are trying to convince parents (to enrol their children),” she said. “I would like to see a cost analysis of different scenarios to see the impact on families.”
Cochrane and Ferguson both said the province had promised that a new transportation fee structure would be in place for the current school year, which has not happened.
“Once again, we have a case of broken commitments by the province,” said Ferguson.
Votes against the busing fee increase were nearly unanimous, although some trustees abstained from the debate due to a lingering conflict-of-interest controversy.
That issue was addressed, in part, by the proposed increases being broken into eight separate motions – by grades, categories, etc.
Despite those allowances, trustees Carol Bazinet and Sheila Taylor left the board chamber during the debate after declaring a pecuniary interest because they both have children who could have been affected by the proposed fee increases. Trustee Joy Bowen-Eyre also sat out for a portion of the fee discussions because she is also a parent of a child in the system.
An April 12 memo from the Calgary firm of Macleod Dixon to the CBE’s in-house lawyer, Rod Peden, suggested that trustees who have to pay school fees for their children may be in a conflict in voting on both the planned increase and the overall budget.
As board officials struggle to minimize the loss of teaching positions in a difficult budget year, administration had argued the fee increases were necessary because of a decision to stop subsidizing transportation costs with money meant for instructional purposes.
Many trustees appeared torn throughout the debate, including George Lane, who called it a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation.
It was hoped the fees would cover the entire $8.8-million gap between what the province provides in transportation grants and the cost of running the board’s busing system.
There are an estimated 26,000 children in kindergarten to Grade 9 who get to school on yellow buses or city transit.
The CBE is also proposing to increase noon-hour supervision fees by five per cent.
Despite what the leaked legal memo warns is a “significant risk” the board could be found not to have the legal authority to levy lunch hour fees, the board plan say only those children who are eligible for bus transport and whose parents pay the busing fee would be exempt from the planned $295 charge.
The board is expected to report back on June 14.
Calgary Herald
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