With costs continuing to outpace provincial funding, fees are set to climb again this fall for those families utilizing RVS transportation services.

In an effort to balance the transportation services budgets, Rocky View Schools (RVS) trustees approved changes in service levels coupled with a series of rate increases at today's board meeting.

For the 2019-20 school year, the following rate increases have been approved: 

  • A five percent increase to fees for resident students who reside within 2.4 km of their school and/or attend a program of choice, raising fees per student from $294 to $308
  • A new fee of $157 for resident students requiring an additional stop location in the morning, afternoon, or both;
  • A 19 percent increase for non-resident students accessing a school bus inside RVS’ boundaries, raising fees per student from $472 to $625;
  • A 19 percent increase for non-resident students accessing a school bus outside RVS’ boundaries, raising fees per student from $1050 to $1,250; 
  • Removal of the family maximum, with the first two children in a family paying $308 each and all additional children paying $154 each.

In addition to these fee changes, the board also approved changes which will:  

  • Eliminate all ride-a-longs in the fall, no longer allowing students to accompany a friend to his or her house unless it’s their normal bus route; and
  • Eliminate urban choice come September, no longer allowing grade 5 – 12 urban students to catch any bus to their desired location within the municipality.

Board chair Todd Brand blames the changes to transportation on rising fuel prices, operational increases and other inflationary costs, along with continued growth pressures, which have left the transportation budget projected to be in the red once again.  He says they don't anticipate transportation grant revenues to increase in the 2019/2020 school year so they have no choice but to adjust services and increase fees.

“We believe we’ve made the best of a difficult situation, raising fees slightly for resident students, charging more for services for non-resident students and eliminating services that are no longer affordable,” said Brand who believes they will need to make additional cuts in future years if grant revenues don't increase significantly.

While Brand agrees that some RVS families won't be pleased by the changes, he also feels that others may say they're grateful that RVS is trying to keep transportation costs as contained as possible.

"One thing that we heard in our large consultation last year was parents, without question, did not want us using instruction money to cover transportation.  That was crystal clear from our communities.  While some will not like the changes, I think we're going to have others who are saying, 'you know what, don't like 'em but we're glad you're doing that rather than pulling teachers out of our classrooms to cover people's transportation choices.'"  

Since 2008, transportation grant revenues have increased by only 1.27 percent, while inflation has risen by 18.95 percent. The result has been the gradual depletion of the division's $1.8 million transportation reserves to zero.

RVS transportation families will receive a letter home outlining the decision and the individual impact on their family by June 30.

During the 2017-2018, RVS held a 10-week public transportation consultation process to find $1 million in savings to the transportation budget.