A petition with over 1,200 signatures is calling on SD23 to make school busses more available.

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Where should the line be drawn between students who live close enough to school to find their own way, and those who require the bus to get to school?

For families living in Kelowna, West Kelowna and Peachland, the line is three kilometres from the nearest elementary school, four kilometres for middle school, and 4.8 kilometres for high school.

Nicole Day, whose house is barely within the 4.8 kilometre radius from Mount Boucherie Secondary School in West Kelowna, said it would take her children an hour to walk to school, the roads don’t all have sidewalks and there are blind corners, a homeless shelter is being built along the route and bears live in her neighbourhood.

“Is it not essential service to get kids to school safely?” she said.

Students are only guaranteed a spot on the bus if they are living outside of those boundaries, but students living closer can still use the bus as “courtesy rider," as long as there is space available and their parents pay $300 per year.

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Two of Day’s kids attend Mount Boucherie, but only one has a seat on the bus. She describes her neighbourhood as a suburb in the mountains, and said houses just a few doors down on the same street, are outside of the 4.8 kilometre radius and are guaranteed bussing at no extra charge. 

It’s a struggle for many parents in the area, she said, who often have to readjust their work schedules or rely on grandparents to get their kids to and from school.

Earlier in October, Day launched a petition, calling on School District 23 to reduce the minimum distances by more than half. It currently has more than 1,200 signatures, and is yet to be presented to the board.

In addition to the concerns mentioned prior, the petition shares worries of city transit, which is alternatively relied upon by some students. It says that between the bus terminal and school, there is safe injection site, and in the past there was a report of a female student being groped at the terminal, and as well as a parent being offered methamphetamine.

The petition says the school district previously suggested parents privately charter SD23’s buses and drivers, which would come at a cost of $1,200 per student for the 2020-2021 school year.

“This is not acceptable as taxpayers,” reads the petition. “It is clear that SD23 has the resources since we’re able to privately charter them, but is refusing to allot funds where they are clearly needed.”

Day said the bus along her route isn’t even full size, and feels like there are enough parents willing to pay $300 annually to justify a bigger bus.

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But if more money gets spent on bussing students, it has to come from somewhere, said vice chair of School District 23 Chantelle Desrosiers, who’s also a parent living in West Kelowna.

She said a school bus costs between $150,000 and $200,000, and each route bills $60,000 to $70,000 annually. The district is currently running 70 buses. The total cost of bussing last year was $4.7 million. Provincial subsidies covered $600,000 and bussing fees contributed nearly $1 million.

“Basically it then cost the district $662 per student that we transported. So we paid $3.1m out of our operating budget for transportation,” Desrosiers said. “Decisions have to be made with what that comes out of.”

Spending more on bussing would result in less money in the overall budget, she said, which is used to keep classrooms open and pay the salaries of teachers and support staff.

The board has yet to receive the petition and Desrosiers said she will take it into consideration. However when an extensive study was conducted on the issue in 2018, she remembers there was not much appetite to spend more on bussing.

“The overwhelming response from the public was... they didn’t want more money coming out of the operation budget coming,” she said, adding that parents want the district to give bussing priority to younger students.

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