Cochrane had decent representation at the Rocky View Schools public consultation meeting on Tuesday (February 13) evening.

Fiona Gilbert, Ward 6 Rocky View School Trustee and Board Vice Chair, guesstimates close to 50 people attended and feels conversation went well. "I was glad to see as many people there as what there were and the different stakeholders made up of parents, staff and bus drivers so I think it gave us a really good perspective from all angles."

A number of options were presented to community members to garner feedback on the best way to handle the one million dollar deficit predicted for this fall. While some options presented were to take the shortfall from the instructional budget to doubling or tripling up on bus routes, increasing walk routes or lengthening rides, many voiced their frustrations and questioned foresight into long-term planning. 

One attendee felt this would be more of a band-aid solution and thought more out of the box thinking should be considered. "I feel like these options have so many unintended consequences that the very principles you are trying to protect will certainly be violated in the long run. It seems to be an overall planning issue and I appreciate that while there is a questionnaire now none of these stakeholders were consulted before. I fail to see how in the long run this won't prevent any future problems and I think this requires far more consideration than what has been given."

Gilbert attended public consultations in both Airdrie and Cochrane and says taking money from the instructional budget was not well supported nor was adding to ride times by extending rural bus routes. Questions surrounding whether our buses could be running more efficiently when it comes to ridership is something that will be looked into, states Gilbert. "It is something we will continue to look at. We as a transportation department only know what we know, we don't know what we don't know. Our transportation department sits down with each of our contractors in May and June and looks at routing, it is not done in isolation it is done together and there is a process to get those routes set. Some of the challenges that we have is that because we are so fast growing that in May and June when we set the bus routes we don't actually know where all the kids are coming from and part of that is on parents too. If you don't register kids with the bus until August and the routes are already made and then you change things around sometimes when you have to change things around at the last minute you may not be as efficient as what you would like to be."

Finding a solution will not be easy as some people say scratch all the options. "I am hearing from parents that they don't like any of these ideas and honestly, don't really like them either. I don't like to implement changes that impact families, schools and bell times. They are not ideal by any stretch of the imagination but this is the reality that we are in and as a board, we are trying to find the decision with the least amount of impact all across the division."

The transportation committee will meet on February 26 to review comments and feedback before bundling the information and sharing it back out throughout the entire division for community feedback in early March. The RVS board will look closely at all the collected data before deliberating a decision on April 12.

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