School fees across the Aspen View Public School Division will be reduced next school year after the board of trustees amended their school fees policy June 22.
The policy was reworked in accordance the Act to Reduce School Fees – formerly referred to as Bill 1 – which was proclaimed as law June 5.
“What has happened is of course Bill 1 was proclaimed, we then see the Bill 1 regulations which require us to change some policies around fees,” said Aspen View superintendent Mark Francis. “Things like resource fees, general user fees that have been eliminated.”
Aspen View’s Policy 19 was passed unanimously by trustees, with clear definitions of fees and an addition that states only school fees defined by the policy and outlined in the division’s school fee schedule for the school year may be charged.
Aspen View is required to compile and submit their fee schedule to the Ministry of Education by June 30 for approval, and the Minister of Education must approve in writing increases above five per cent.
“This is actually a good part of this regulation. The idea that you charge a fee, but you have to make sure you use it for the purpose. That’s a good thing for the school system, for the parents,” Francis said.
Board of trustees chair Dennis MacNeil said what he likes about Bill 1 is it “moves away from equality to fairness.”
“Fairness means giving kids what they need. There are kids out there that don’t have the finances or whatever to be able to afford some of this stuff, so we waive it,” he said.
As per Policy 19, only fees listed in the school division’s fee schedule fee may be charged, so Francis said the division has taken every single fee that has ever been charged and listed it in the fee schedule.
“I am not a fan of how inflexible this is; however, this is the first rendition. This is realistic; I think we will survive this next year with it,” he said.
The board also approved the 2017-18 transportation fee schedule, showing an increase for ineligible students to a school of choice, from $100 to $150. The fee for transportation to a secondary address was also increased, from $75 to $100.
This does not necessarily mean the fees will be applied, trustee Donna Cherniwchan said.
“This is the approval of a fee schedule. This is not the board deciding whether we’re going to charge transportation fees or not,” she said.
Treasurer Amber Oko said last year the ineligible fee – applied to students that live more than 2.4 kilometers from their school – school of choice fee and the fee for yard service were waived.
The board will discuss in August whether to charge transportation fees, and in a later interview MacNeil said it would depend on how the transportation budget comes in.
