New bus fee in Saanich School District will fund student tracking system
A new $25 registration fee and a $100 late-registration fee for Saanich School District bus riders will help pay for a new tracking system that lets parents know where their children are during bus trips.
The Sooke School District uses the safety measure on its buses, and similar systems have performed well at other districts in the province.
The idea of charging a ridership fee was discussed but never made it to the stage of being a motion before the Saanich School Board, said district superintendent Dave Eberwein. “They felt that with the financial situation for many families out there, we wanted to do a registration fee instead.”
The software-based tracking system will operate by having students use an electronic card to swipe through a device when they get on and off a bus, he said.
“Parents will know exactly if they’re on the bus, where the bus is located on its route, etc.”
The system will be in effect for the 2024-25 school year.
Eberwein said the district’s bus system has had a substanial increase in ridership in this school year, with about 2,700 of 7,300 district students signed up. “So a large proportion of students are registered.”
He said one positive outcome with the new system is an expected drop in the number of “ghost riders” — those who have registered for bus service but don’t use it. That leads to space having to be held until it is confirmed that a student will not be riding the bus, Eberwein said.
The fact that the newly approved registration fee is nominal will hopefully be an incentive for parents with “a genuine interest” in having their children take the bus, he said.
Eberwein said anyone with financial issues won’t have to pay.
Bus registration starts on Monday, and all district parents received a reminder of that just before spring break, he said.
Late registration comes into effect after May 31, while registrations received after July 31 might not be processed until after the school year begins in September.
Among parameters for parents to note, district policy has walking limits of 2.5 kilometres for kindergarten Grade 5 students and 4.8 kilometres for those in Grade 6-12, so buses do not generally run inside those distances from a given school.
Eberwein noted that the district brought its first two electric buses into the system in February, part of a continuing program started by the province in 2021.
Meanwhile, the Sooke School Board has begun looking at possibly reinstating a fee for bus travel due to the financial hit to the district from rapid growth and inflation.
The district already has a $25 “safety fee” that is used to support the tracking system.
Bus fees were last charged there in 2016 at $225 per rider per year.
The issue will be back before the board in April.
The Gulf Islands School District is the other district in the region with a bus system; it doesn’t have a ridership fee.