Province might help ease waitlist for West Shore school buses,

At least 300 students looking for spots

The province might have money to help hundreds of students get off the school-bus waitlist in the West Shore.

Education Minister Rob Fleming said he plans to meet Sooke School District representatives to see how the ministry can help, in addition to the funding it already plans to provide all districts.

More than 300 students are on the waitlist for a spot on one of the district’s school buses.

“I’ve talked to the chair of the district about a number of things. We’re scheduled to talk about this issue in particular, just to see what Day 1, Week 1 and Month 1 [look like], as it relates to transportation,” Fleming said.

Sooke school board chairman Ravi Parmar said more than 3,600 students have registered for the school bus this year — an increase from the 2,700 to 2,900 last year.

That is due in part to the ballooning student body — the district has the fastest-growing student population per capita in the province — and also because it’s now free, Parmar said.

“I think we’re seeing such an uptake this year because people have realized busing is free. So we’re seeing those parents who previously wouldn’t have signed up for busing for their children signing up this year,” Parmar said.

The district used to collect a fee for school bus service, but changed the policy after the previous B.C. Liberal government offered $358,000, on the condition that school bus service be free.

The provincial funding does not cover the total cost, and the district pulls $115,000 in operational funding from its overall budget to cover the shortfall, Parmar said. Despite the growth in demand, the government funding level has not changed, which is a subject Parmar plans to bring up with Fleming.

The demand might also be greater than the 300 students already on the waitlist. Another 600 from kindergarten to Grade 11 who were registered for the bus last year have not yet registered, he said.

But the board will be watching closely in the first couple of weeks of classes to see how many of the registered students take the bus.

Other capital region school districts are not seeing the same problem.

The Greater Victoria School District offers school bus service only to about 200 students, since most are within walking distance of a school. Only students with disability and those who live farther than 4.8 kilometres from their school, while still living in the catchment area, are eligible.

“Given that we’re an urban district, we have very limited busing for catchment students,” secretary-treasurer Mark Walsh said.

“The vast majority of our busing, though, is for our students with diverse learning needs, who have significant mobility issues and that kind of thing,” he said.

The district does not charge a fee, and there is no waitlist. It gets $20,000 from the province in school-bus funding.

The Saanich School District does not have a waitlist, either.

“We have a fairly consistent number of students taking the bus this year, compared with last year — around 1,800 students,” superintendent Dave Eberwein said.

“While we might see a moderate increase in total student population this year, we don’t anticipate any problems handling them on our current fleet.”