Busing tussle continues between school boards

Edmonton public school trustees are frustrated with the pace of progress in sharing school buses with Edmonton Catholic Schools.

The public board heard Tuesday it will save $600,000 this year by sharing 25 yellow bus routes with Catholic schools. The buses do double runs, and public and Catholic students are never on the bus at the same time.

Four public schools moved their starting bells by five or fewer minutes to make the bus routes work.

The savings are less than the $2.5 million the board thinks it could save each year by creating a joint transportation authority with its sister board.

The Catholic school board has said the potential savings are too meagre to justify the cost of creating a new, shared organization.

“I’m still a little miffed and disappointed that our sister board won’t agree to have our students on the same bus,” public trustee Trisha Estabrooks said at a Tuesday board meeting.

Edmonton public school board chairwoman Michelle Draper said the district would need specific legal agreements in place to have children from both districts share a bus ride.

In an email statement on Tuesday, Catholic school board chairwoman Laura Thibert said her board is “extremely pleased” with the collaboration thus far.

I’m still a little miffed and disappointed that our sister board won’t agree to have our students on the same bus.

“Edmonton Catholic school district is already realizing greater transportation savings through a combination of the successful collaboration with EPSB, efficiencies that our administration has implemented and without incurring significant startup costs of approximately $1 million from a formalized transportation arrangement,” Thibert said.

At the public school board table, however, trustee Cheryl Johner said the Catholic board’s reluctance is “discrimination” that wouldn’t happen if Alberta followed the lead of other provinces and had just one publicly funded school system.

That comment disappointed Thibert, who said the district’s administrators are working together successfully.

Public trustee Sherry Adams said trustees should work at building a better relationship with the Catholic school board for the sake of students.

Draper is considering approaching the francophone school board to talk bus sharing, and wants to keep gently pushing for citywide bus sharing with the Catholic board.

“It’s definitely still on the table for us, but partnership’s a delicate thing. We have to work at a speed that both are comfortable with, and I think Edmonton Catholic is comfortable with this right now.”

With public students’ bus fees rising five per cent per year for the next four years, the public will have “increasing expectations” about co-operation between school boards, public school superintendent Darrel Robertson said.