INNISFAIL - Chinook's Edge School Division trustees will be voicing their concerns over an ongoing shortage of funding for school bus transportation to the minister of education during an upcoming meeting, says superintendent Kurt Sacher.
The 2016-17 transportation budget deficit in the division is $546,256.
"For years, from every possible perspective, our board has advocated strongly for more support for the rural challenges we face from a transportation point of view," Sacher said. "(Trustees) feel very strongly that they are underfunded. It has been in the hundreds of thousands of dollars year after year.
"Because we don't have funding, we have to rely on other sources which typically are funds that could be used in the classroom for instruction.
"It's an ongoing concern and to address that concern they continue to look for creative ways to minimize the financial impact on the system."
In a release issued in late 2016, the board added: "The board continues to voice concern regarding insufficient funding for rural education, which directly impacts the division's transportation budget and creates ongoing funding challenges."
In an effort to address some of the transportation funding shortfall, the board passed a motion at its recent regularly scheduled board meeting, stating that bus fees will no longer be waived for students attending "schools of choice" and that all fees must be paid at the time of application for enrolment to the school.
"They (trustees) do take a hard look at families who are struggling to pay fees and they will continue to waive fees, whether they are school fees or transportation fees, if a family can demonstrate that potentially their income is below the poverty line, and we have a process for that," he said.
"But what they won't do is if a family makes a choice to attend a school of choice (outside the student's designated area), they won't provide the same waiver for a decision like that when they could stay in their local school and not add costs to the transportation department.
"The board is no longer going to (waive the fee) to encourage them to stay in the local area. They are trying to minimize costs relative to the transportation department. They are looking at every possible angle to minimize the strain on the transportation budget."
The board has taken steps and will be taking others to make the minister of education aware of the transportation funding concerns, he said.
"To date the board has written to the minister, met with (Alberta Education) officials, and joined a group of 20 other school boards in the province that has expressed concern over the lack of funding for rural transportation," he said.
"The board is scheduled to meet with the minister in the not-too-distant future and they will be raising that issue again."
There are 40 schools in the Innisfail-based Chinook's Edge School Division.
Kurt Sacher, superintendent of schools
"For years, from every possible perspective, our board has advocated strongly for more support for the rural challenges we face from a transportation point of view."
