During the 2017-2018 school year, Rocky View Schools (RVS) held a 10-week public transportation consultation process to find $1 million in savings to the transportation budget.  

Starting in the fall of this year, RVS is once again having to adjust transportation service levels to balance the portfolio's budget.

At today's (April 4) board meeting, trustees voted unanimously to make several changes that will impact families using RVS transportation services.  "We recognize that this will have a negative impact on some families," says Board Chair Todd Brand.  "We tried to keep that as minimal as possible."

Brand blames the changes to transportation on rising fuel prices, operational increases and other inflationary costs, along with continued growth pressures, which have left the transportation budget projected to be in the red once again.  He says they don't anticipate transportation grant revenues to increase in the 2019/2020 school year so they have no choice but to adjust services and increase fees.

The changes are based upon recommendations made by the Transportation Committee.  Beginning this fall, families accessing RVS' transportation services will see:

  • A five percent increase to fees for resident students who reside within 2.4 km of their school and/or attend a program of choice, raising fees per student from $294 to $308
  • A new fee of $157 for resident students requiring an additional stop location in the morning, afternoon, or both;
  • A 19 percent increase for non-resident students accessing a school bus inside RVS’ boundaries, raising fees per student from $472 to $625;
  • A 19 percent increase for non-resident students accessing a school bus outside RVS’ boundaries, raising fees per student from $1050 to $1,250; 
  • Removal of the family maximum, with the first two children in a family paying $308 each and all additional children paying $154 each.

In addition to these fee changes, the board also approved changes to Board Policy 17: Student Transportation which will:  

  • Eliminate all ride-a-longs in the fall, no longer allowing students to accompany a friend to his or her house unless it’s their normal bus route; and
  • Eliminate urban choice come September, no longer allowing grade 5 – 12 urban students to catch any bus to their desired location within the municipality.

“We believe we’ve made the best of a difficult situation, raising fees slightly for resident students, charging more for services for non-resident students and eliminating services that are no longer affordable,” said Brand who believes they will need to make additional cuts in future years if grant revenues don't increase significantly.

While Brand agrees that some RVS families won't be pleased by the changes, he also feels that others may say they're grateful that RVS is trying to keep transportation costs as contained as possible.

"One thing that we heard in our large consultation last year was parents, without question, did not want us using instruction money to cover transportation.  That was crystal clear from our communities.  While some will not like the changes, I think we're going to have others who are saying, 'you know what, don't like 'em but we're glad you're doing that rather than pulling teachers out of our classrooms to cover people's transportation choices.'"  

Since 2008, transportation grant revenues have increased by only 1.27 percent, while inflation has risen by 18.95 percent. In past years, the board worked hard to minimize the cost to parents by making efficiencies in its operations and depleting its $1.8 million transportation reserves to zero.

RVS transportation families will receive a letter home outlining the decision and the individual impact on their family by June 30th. 

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