Winnipeg mom wants changes to policy she says excludes son from school bus
Winnipeg School Division chair to propose change to transportation policy that has frustrated parents
A Winnipeg mother wants the Winnipeg School Division to change a transportation policy after learning the school bus will pick up her son's best friend by her house this year — but not her son.
Eight-year-old Damon Silversides goes to Brock Corydon School, as does his buddy, Max. Damon is in the English program — Max, who lives down the street, takes bilingual Hebrew classes.
The school division previously had a policy that allowed children who didn't qualify to take the school bus — because they lived too close to their school or attended a "school of choice," as opposed to their catchment school — an option to pay a nominal fee to use the service.
Earlier this year, the school division announced that as a cost-saving measure, it would axe that policy, but the changes didn't apply to children enrolled in bilingual instruction.
That means a student like Max — in a bilingual Hebrew class — can keep taking the bus.
But Damon, who lives in the catchment for a different, closer school to his house, no longer qualified for bus transportation. He's caught without a ride to school or a buddy to travel with.
"It's terrible. It's sending a wrong message to our children," said Tannis Silversides, Damon's mother.
"He doesn't understand that just because he's not enrolled in the Hebrew program at Brock Corydon that the bus will not take him. It doesn't make sense to an eight-year-old. It doesn't make sense to me either."
"I'm kind of sad about it," said Damon. "I'm fine going on the bus but without Max, I kind of wanted to stay with him on the bus," he said.
"It'll be kind of confusing because I always go on the bus almost every day."
For the past three years, Tannis Silversides paid $440 a year for Damon to ride the bus that his sister rode for free, because she was also taking Hebrew-language instruction. Tannis's daughter has moved on to middle school but the bus pickup spot for eligible children — by her house — seems to have remained.
Silversides said she's cut back her work hours — and lost pay — in order to drive her son to school this year. She's written several letters to the Winnipeg School Division about the predicament many parents find themselves in this September because of the changes.
"I just don't think the situation is being treated fairly, I don't think they're looking at this from all avenues," she said.
"I'd like the school board to try to work with the parents on this instead of just cancelling the bus service altogether for parents that were paying for it before."
Division chair plans to propose policy change
The chair of the Winnipeg School Division says she has heard from many parents about the transportation program changes and they have been "largely unhappy" with what was announced in the spring.
"I 100 per cent see parents that are frustrated and they've got good reason why," said Sherri Rollins.
"The implementation of the policy changes are not very clear to them and that to me is infinitely understandable."
Rollins added that although the processes could have been improved, parents were still given six months' notice.
She said the province covers $1 million of the school division's $6-million transportation budget. The division had to make cuts but there have been many snags to their policy changes, she said, especially for children whose catchment areas changed because of new schools, or those with siblings in different programs.
The Hebrew-language program at Brock Corydon, for example, has a larger catchment than the English-language program, she said.
Rollins said she plans to propose an "empty-seat policy" — similar to what she's seen while researching policies in other jurisdictions — at upcoming meetings in September.
Under such policies, if a school bus has an empty seat on its regular route, the seat could go to a student who would otherwise be deemed ineligible for bus transportation.
"It does cost us nothing to have a student go on it. And what we don't have in the Winnipeg School Division is an empty-seat policy and I'm a proponent, and in September I'm going to hope that we institute an empty-seat policy," she said.
She added the school division is not looking at bringing back the fee-for-service rides for students, because the extra routes involved still ended up costing more than the fees provided.
"An empty-seat policy can be part of the solution to eliminate that frustration for parents because nobody wants an inefficient busing system," she said.
Rollins said transportation will be on the agenda at both the Winnipeg School Division board meeting on Sept. 11 and a special parents' meeting on Sept. 18.
