The Chinook's Edge School Division's board of education will be raising in-town busing fees by $20 this year to $130 for the 2013/2014 school year.
Colleen Butler, chair of CESD, said the board raised the fee because the division lost the fuel supplement the Ministry of Education formerly gave the division when average fuel costs during a specific month were higher than a certain level.
ìThat is no longer in place, and as you know, fuel prices are extremely high, and so in order to be able to maintain the service, we have to increase the fees somewhat,î she said.
Students living within a town's boundaries are bused to school if they live farther than either 1.6 kilometres or 2.4 kilometres from the nearest school. The distance varies depending on the town.
The fuel supplement was eliminated in the budget handed down earlier this month. It averaged about $55,000 per month for CESD. Last year, the division received about $550,000 for the fuel supplement, which was put toward general transportation costs for the division.
"That is no longer in place, and as you know, fuel prices are extremely high, and so in order to be able to maintain the service, we have to increase the fees somewhat."Colleen Butler, chair, CESD
