Some students in School District 23 can now ride the bus for free, after the Central Okanagan Board of Education chose to accept $600,000 from the provincial government.
The money, which comes from the provincial government’s newly created School Transportation Fund, will allow the district to provide a 100 per cent subsidy to eligible bus riders.
This means that any Kindergarten to Grade 3 students living farther than 4 kilometres from their catchment school, and Grades 4-12 students living farther away than 4.8 kilometres, will not have to pay the district’s $250 bus fee.
The board’s decision comes somewhat late (one month into the school year) because trustees had to decide whether to forgo the estimated $1 million they had estimated transportation fees would take in.
Shortly after the government announced the funding in August, School Board Chair Moyra Baxter said that, in order to accept the government money, the school would have to eliminate its own transportation fees.
Since the $600,000 of government money wouldn’t cover the $1 million the district would lose by eliminating the fees, it wasn’t a straightforward decision.
When it accepted the province’s money Sept. 14, the board said non-eligible students (who live closer than four, or 4.8 kilometres, to school) will still have to pay the $250 fee.
This marks the first time in a decade the school has used walk limits.
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