Central Okanagan parents can expect busing refund

Some Central Okanagan parents will be getting some money back, after School District 23 received a boost in funding for buses.

Despite the school year being in full swing, the Central Okanagan School District has made some dramatic, last minute changes.

The changes come as a result of the provincial government offering the district hundreds of thousands of dollars to help subsidize busing, something it stopped doing several years ago.

“The ministry has found an additional $15-million that they can put towards transportation services for students in the province. The school district is receiving $600,000 of that allocation,” said Larry Paul of SD23.

But that subsidy comes with conditions.

“We have to eliminate user fees for eligible riders based on the old formula the ministry used,” said Paul.

That formula included walk limits. In a nutshell it means students between kindergarten to grade three who live less than four kilometres from their school won’t have to pay the yearly fee of $250. Same goes for grades four through 12 who live farther than 4.8 kilometres. The rest, considered courtesy riders, will have the option to either walk to school or pay the $250 busing fee.

Paul admits the school board struggled with whether or not to accept the money because some students are going to continue to pay while others will not.

Under the old system of charging $250 per student, the district was expected to raise $1-million. If you do the math, the $600,000 subsidy will leave the district $400,000 short. But the district has a plan.

“We have a series of courtesy riders that also pay. They will not receive the subsidies. So they will continue to pay for the bus services. That’s the other $400,000, so it will balance out,” said Paul.

The plan is expected to be approved by the province by the end of this month and the cheques should be out by early November.