Transportation fees will be charged for students within the Aspen View Public Schools Division who decide to go to schools that are not their designated school.
Previously at their Aug. 31 meeting, the Aspen View Public Schools Division board of trustees moved to charge all fees in the 2017-2018 transportation fee schedule except for the school of choice fee.
Trustee Nancy Sand made a motion at the Sept. 14 meeting to amend the original transportation fee motion to include a $100 school of choice fee. She said the school division should charge fees across the board.
“I would like to add that school of choice $100, in so that it’s across the board that we have a fee, and I think it deters – it doesn’t deter. If you’ve made the decision to go to another school you’re going to, but it also states the fact we’re supporting our local schools,” Sand said.
The original motion trustee Candy Nikipelo made Aug. 31 was to amend the 2017-18 transportation fee schedule to charge ineligible students living less than 2.4 kilometers from school and alternate pick-ups to a secondary address $75, and yard service $100.
Trustee Donna Cherniwchan asked what concerns Sand heard from the parents about the school of choice fee not being charged.
Sand said community members she spoke to “wanted to protect their own communities.”
“They felt that it’s a nominal fee, but it does make a statement,” she said. “They didn’t think it spoke well to their own community, their own schools.”
Cherniwchan said she did some research, and the subject should be looked into further.
“Sometimes when you look at the word school of choice, as a general public looking at that term, it seems like you’re getting an added service,” she said.
Cherniwchan said according to the Pembina Hills Public Schools Division website, parents are not charged a fee for driving their child to a bus stop within their chosen school’s attendance area to catch the bus. If they apply for a seat on a transfer bus, the cost is then $400.
“In that case yes, there is an additional service fee provided, in which a fee is common sense,” she said.
Board of trustees chair Dennis MacNeil said his position is Aspen View should be funded for the actual cost of student transportation, and transportation costs the school division is not funded for by the province should be passed onto parents.
Cherniwchan said she cannot make a decision when she does not know the cost of transporting students to a school of choice.
“When I think of charging fees, it should be because you’re getting a service. I don’t believe these students are getting an additional service,” she said. “I don’t think its fair to charge a fee, to be punitive. If we want children to stay in their community school, that community school needs to be the best that it can be. As a board or as an administration we need to be asking ourselves, why are those families leaving that community school?”
After further discussion MacNeil called the vote on Sand’s motion. The motion passed with trustees Cherniwchan and Elohne Chizawsky opposed. Trustee Anne Karczmarczyk was absent from the meeting.
The board unanimously approved a second motion made after an in-camera session to set the maximum family rate for school of choice fees at $200.
Editor’s note: Information in the Sept. 12 edition of the Athabasca Advocate in the article “Bus fees going up” listed incorrect information regarding transportation fees. The Advocate apologizes for the error.
