The breakdown of negotiations on transportation between Northern Lights School Division and Lakeland Catholic School District is disappointing but not unexpected given the several months of discussion that have led nowhere.
Now, instead of two bus systems delivering students to the public, Catholic and French schools, we will have three. This decision of the boards to agree to disagree and go their separate ways when it comes to transportation has massively failed to address concerns raised by the taxpayers of Bonnvyille and area.
It's been quite some time since we've seen a local issue generate quite so many letters to the editor. Overwhelmingly, the authors of these letters urged for common sense to prevail. Just how hard could it be for common ground to be found, for a common understanding to be reached around transporting students from home to school and back again in the safest and most efficient way possible? Was it too much to ask that all this be done in a financially responsible manner? Apparently it was.
There are the purely logistical issues to consider with this decision. With a shortage of bus drivers already documented, where do these districts intend to find bus drivers for two systems when they had trouble finding enough for one. Both school systems have indicated operating two separate transportation programs will not cost anything extra. Where did they find a mathematician capable of multiplying drivers and buses by two without adding to the overall cost?
There are larger implications as well. How can two boards of elected officials, whose sole purpose is to represent the needs and desires of the people who elected them, receive letter after letter, phone call after phone call, demanding they compromise and find common ground, and let those letters go unheeded?
It's true, as both boards have said, their primary goal is to protect the needs of the children they serve, not the taxpayer but how exactly are the students being served with separate busing systems? How are the needs of the students being protected with proof that no matter how the public comes together, no matter how many letters they write or phone calls they make, their elected officials don't need to take those into account when making decisions.
We elect our officials to represent us, to make decisions for us. It seems like this decision was made to protect something other than that fundamental part of democracy – early Wednesdays and Family Fridays.
