CALGARY – The Calgary Board of Education says it’s changing its congregated bus stop system so that no elementary student will walk farther than 1.6 km and no junior high school student will walk farther than 1.8 km to catch the bus. The CBE warned the plan is only for one year, unless additional funding is granted from the provincial government.
The CBE said it wants to set up a meeting with Minister of Education David Eggen to ask for more funding in order to continue the program in the future with the new maximum distances. Under the congregated bus system, some students had been walking up to 7 km.
“The guideline from the minister of education is 2.4 km and we are only funded for students that are beyond 2.4 km from their designated school,” he said. “So we had the challenge that we’re funded for far less, and the administration and the board of trustees believes the 1.6 km is a fair distance. It’s a balancing game between the money and what we can provide students.”
Coppinger said the CBE’s transportation budget for this year is $34.75 million, but its estimated cost is $42.9 million.
“We hear…that the minister is considering a reduction in fees for schools and parents, so ideally there’s no fees for transportation, so in order to achieve this service level, we’d need an increase of $8.2 million.”
The congregated bus stop system, put in place for the 2015-16 school year, reduced the number of yellow school bus stops on each route. The CBE said in a statement released Sept. 1 that the new congregated bus stops were put in place to address a funding gap, and would decrease ride times for students.
“We recognize that for many of our families there will be an increase in the distance from home to the bus stop,” said the statement.
“To address the funding gap and not to increase fees, a decision was made to adjust the service levels,” said CBE superintendent Frank Coppinger at an afternoon press conference Friday.
Coppinger said 589 students, or about three per cent of students registered for yellow school bus service, were experiencing distances up to 7 km as a result of the congregated stops. He said 472 were elementary students experiencing distances beyond 1.6 km and 117 were in middle and junior high schools, traveling distances beyond 1.8 km.
Shortly after school started, an online petition was launched that requested the CBE “restore walk times to bus stops to previous levels.”
On Friday, the CBE posted a new report on their website, addressing the public outcry over the increased bus stop distances.
“Some parents have expressed concerns about these travel distances. We have heard those concerns.”
The CBE said they will “reconfigure” routes and add buses, to make sure no students are walking more than the maximum travel distances.
“We have already started the process to modify certain routes and adjust the bus stop locations,” said Coppinger. He added if parents submit their bus registration forms before the end of the month, routes will be adjusted by mid-October to reach the distance goals. The CBE said it will notify parents and students of any changes.
President of the Calgary Association of Parent and Student Councils Lisa Davis wasn’t impressed by the CBE’s response after reading its report earlier Friday.
“It’s virtually a non-response. What they’re saying is they’re just going to now ensure that they’re going to do what they said they were going to do in June.”
“It still doesn’t really address the issue of congregated stops, and it doesn’t address the issue of young children walking long distances.”
“1.6 km for a six-year-old is 25 to 30 minutes, in the cold and dark, in the winter of Calgary,” added Davis. “So we’re a little disappointed that this has been the response.”
The new report will be discussed at a Board of Trustees meeting on Sept. 15.
The CBE is responsible for transporting more than 38,000 students by bus daily. Of those, 25,000 students ride yellow buses served by 745 routes.
– With files from Sarah Offin and Gary Bobrovitz
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