The issue of cross-boundary transferring of students in the district is rearing up once again.
The School District 27 (SD27) board received a letter from the Forest Grove Rural School Society at its Oct. 25 meeting. The letter noted its dissatisfaction with the fact the district is not following its own busing policy.
The letter was sent on the society’s behalf by its secretary Linda Hood, and states its objections to the board's current practice of absorbing the cost of busing students out of their residential catchment area.
The society refers to articles published in the 100 Mile Free Press earlier this year that stated Trustee Will Van Osch asked the board for a review of the schools of choice policy.
This included how much it is costing the district, and what costs would be involved if attendance in catchment areas was enforced.
Van Osch drew attention to the fact SD27 has a busing policy to not cross-boundary transfer students for free, but has been doing it for many years.
Hood says costs associated with transporting students should be the responsibility of the parents who opt to send their child to a school outside their catchment area.
"We are concerned about students going to schools that are outside of their catchment areas, and we would like to see [the policy] enforced more strictly."
100 Mile House Trustee Pattie Baker says it's an issue that's close to her heart, and relates to a bigger problem than the costs of the busing.
Many parents are likely not aware of how much more effectively the board could administer and plan for the year if more students attended schools in their own area, she adds.
"We know where our students are; we just don't know if they're going to stay there. That creates a tremendous amount of difficulty for planning on a long-term basis."
The ability to provide programs in those areas is "really affected" by the school district's bus-transfer costs, Baker explains.
"In the hiring [for example], if we're waiting to see how many students enrol in September, we haven't got a teacher who is already there and planning all summer long for the children in the fall."
While the board moved only to receive the letter at this point, it’s deferred until the new board is in place, Baker notes.
"It certainly isn't over. [Cross-boundary transfer] makes a significant impact on our whole system."
Van Osch says the board is now about halfway through its lengthy review of schools-of-choice policy.
That process is "quite interesting" because since the consolidation (January 2010) and school closures, the board hasn't had a review of how efficient the bus runs are, he explains.
"This is preliminary, but it seems like we've added buses in order to accommodate kids who are travelling cross-boundary to another school, and in some cases, 80 or more students."
Certain students ride to a different place each week, Van Osch notes, such as one bus to the grandmother’s, another day somewhere else, and many of those are also cross-boundary.
"We don't really have a good handle on where we're busing kids, why we're busing kids, who is on the bus, all of those kinds of things."