Private report reveals CBE bus plans
A private report to Calgary’s public school trustees reveals while parents were being surveyed on busing services in February, bureaucrats had already decided to make students walk further this fall, and force them to trek even longer in future years.
The Calgary Board of Education faced sharp criticism in September when the board eliminated communitybased stops in favour of larger congregated locations that forced many children to travel long distances to catch the school bus.
Parents were caught off guard by the changes, which mandated elementary students would walk up to 1.6 km to their bus stops, high school students up to 2.4 km, and students in some alternative programs up to eight km.
But, a private report to the board of trustees, dated April 28, 2015 and obtained by the Calgary Association of Parent and School Councils through a freedom of information request, refers to a 2014 transportation report that proposed a three- year strategy to phase in 2.4 km walk limits.
Parents were not consulted about the changes, and no mention of the plan to dramatically increase walk limits was included when parents participated in a transportation survey in February that quizzed them on their satisfaction with the CBE Transportation Department.
“This was one of the things that surprised the heck out of us. That’s not OK,” said CAPSC spokesman Greg Oberti.
“What we hear from parents is, ‘ Why do I bother engaging ... when the ( school board) is not listening.”
The 2015 report states that introducing changes “may be stressful and difficult” as longer walks were already a concern for the board and it reveals when the walk limit increased to 1.4 km in 2014, the transportation department received more than 3,000 ‘ stop change request’ from parents.
“Not only do they extend the walk zones from what ( existed) last year when they had 3,000 complaints, they did it in a way that notified parents four days before school started,” said Oberti.
In the wake of the busing controversy, the CBE redesigned routes and added buses, and trustees drafted a plan to build a new “public consultation framework,” which they said would build a new culture of transparency and could cost up to $ 500,000.
CAPSC also obtained financial documents under its freedom of information request that were asked for by trustee Trina Hurdman in May and show that CBE transportation administration costs have increased 77 per cent in three years, from $ 1,072,476 in 20132014 to a projection of $ 1,903,617 in 2015- 2016.
When asked Wednesday about the ballooning administration costs, and several other specific details found in the information obtained by CAPSC, the CBE responded with a brief statement.
“This fall, the Calgary Board of Education committed to an independent transportation study to review its service model. We also committed to seeking parent and public feedback as part of a broad public engagement process to review transportation for the next school year and into the future,” read the statement.
The controversial changes introduced in the fall also saw the CBE eliminate a rebate for students who rode Calgary Transit, and move junior high students off yellow school buses and onto Calgary Transit school routes, despite potential problems expressed in the 2015 report about Calgary Transit service such as longer bus rides.
The rebate and junior high school changes were projected to save the board $ 1.3 million.
Oberti classified the documents obtained through FOIP as “disappointing” and said despite the September snafu and subsequent route redesign, young students are still walking excessive distances to their bus stops.
“Is it right for a six or sevenyearold child to be walking 30 to 40 minutes in the dead of winter, when it’s dark out?” he said.
“It can be fixed and it needs to be fixed.”
Is it right for a six or sevenyearold child to be walking 30 to 40 minutes in the dead of winter, when it’s dark out? It can be fixed and it needs to be fixed.