The Northern Lights School Division (NLSD) has decided to stick to their original intent to dissolve the joint transportation agreement with the Lakeland Catholic School District (LCSD) despite being asked to extend the agreement for another year to allow LCSD time to discuss the issue.
After discussing the request at a board meeting Mar. 16, the NLSD trustees agreed that unless LCSD was willing to discuss stepping away from the Wednesday early dismissal system that currently causes about 18 discrepancies a year, there was no point in granting the extension.
The extension request was made at a committee meeting held earlier this month between members of the public and Catholic boards, called by Mary Anne Penner, chair of the LCSD, after the NLSD sent a letter expressing their intent to dissolve the longstanding joint transportation agreement at the end of this school year.
NLSD board chair Walter Hrycauk explained the issues that led the NLSD board to send notification, issues which he said were discussed between the committees as well.
He said variances in the two boards' calendars have led to increased financial stresses on the joint transportation system, as well as negatively affected NLSD students.
The systems receive a joint transportation grant from the province to help offset costs of a shared busing system. This year, there are 35 variances in the calendars, costing $450,000, funds that came from a joint transportation fund where surpluses from the grant have been saved. The expense has virtually wiped out that fund.
“There is a misconception out there, I do believe, and not only with the members of the board but with the community, that the co-operative grant is there to deal with calendar variances and it is not,” Hrycauk said at the board meeting. “The grant is there to deal with the joint transportation system and to deal with stresses on the joint transportation system that have to do with organizing routes and having to go out farther distances to pick up kids from different boards.”
He added the money is in place to provide the joint transportation service, not to deal with an excessive amount of variances.
“That's where a lot of argument comes,” he added. “They say the money is there to pay for these and it's not. The money is there and it's being used for these but it's causing the transportation budget to become extremely stressed and that is a very big concern.”
The stresses are not limited to financial ones, he explained. Students feel the effects of the joint transportation system as well and there are safety concerns too.
LCSD uses early dismissal Wednesdays as an opportunity to provide professional development for teachers, but for NLSD students, he explained, it means waiting for a bus that may be running late, as well as buses rushing to complete their first run within an hour and get back to school to pick up the NLSD students.
NLSD associate superintendent Roy Ripkens said he has had comments from parents about the issue. He estimated that 80 per cent or more of bused students are left waiting for their bus while LCSD students are dropped off and parents often report their students arrive home later than they are supposed to.
Hrycauk mentioned there was some discussion of LCSD moving to half day Wednesdays instead of early dismissal and whether that would alleviate some of these concerns but Hrycauk did not think it would lessen the disruption.
Variances between the calendars have increased steadily in recent years, Hrycauk reported, with 17 early dismissals and 18 full days of difference this school year, 18 early dismissals and 10 additional days in the 2010/2011 school year and 18 early dismissals and eight additional ones in the 2009/2010 year.
Ripkens said, “What's pivotal here is the early dismissal. The variances increased substantially when (LCSD) moved to early Wednesday dismissals…While we have considered and proposed alternate calendars to Lakeland Catholic, the early dismissals remained a high priority for them. They wish to continue them.”
He added NLSD has consulted with parents in the past who have said early Wednesdays would be inconvenient and they wished to keep Family Fridays.
Hrycauk added attempts to come up with a common calendar cannot continue without the issue of early Wednesdays being on the table.
“The 18 early dismissals, that is something I don't believe they're prepared to deal with, he said. “If they aren't prepared to deal with it, I don't believe this board is prepared to continue on. I don't think we can because that is going to be a stress on the system for the rest of time. We tried to get them to bend on that and they didn't. They would not.”
He also said the transportation director would need all the time he could get to organize a separate busing system and LCSD would need time as well. Therefore discussions should not be prolonged, though he was open to discussing the issue farther with Penner and the LCSD committee if they were prepared to negotiate on the early Wednesday issue.
The issue has been a longstanding one, according to NLSD superintendent Roger Nippard, who wasn't sure granting the LCSD request for a year's extension would change anything.
“This is a discussion we've been having for years,” he said. “We have proposed numerous calendars. This year, three to start with. We're not saying ‘this is the calendar, follow it, or else.' We've provided lots of options…If we have been unable to agree on a common calendar and they've just been moving farther and farther and farther apart, what reassurance do we have that a year from now, we won't be having this conversation? We will be. Clearly, we will be. So why delay the inevitable?
“Either we agree on a common calendar now and do what the community is asking us to do or we agree that we're not going to agree and do what 90 per cent of the boards in this province do anyway – operate our own system.”
After debating the issue, the NLSD trustees decided to allow their former motion regarding dissolving the joint transportation agreement to stand and move forward with plans to operate a separate busing system.
