Sooke School District asks parents to opt out of bus registration if at all possible
Did you register your children for the Sooke school bus as a back-up plan? If so, the Sooke School District would like you to consider opting out.
In an email distributed to parents today, they say they have received over 4,100 bus registrations for the current school year, an increase of 49 per cent since the 2015/16 school year. Registration during that same period has increased, but only 9 per cent over that same time.
They believe that a portion of this growth can be attributed to the elimination of bus fees, coupled with parents wanting a backup plan in the event their normal mode of transportation is not available. A child cannot take the bus if they are not registered for it.
This unparalleled growth in bus registration is causing a strain on the District’s transportation network.
If the school board needs to add new routes—which they are considering—the funding would have to come from money currently assigned to the classrooms.
Prior to making that decision, the Board would like an understanding of which families continue to require transportation services this school year.
Realizing that individual circumstances may have changed since the registration process, the District is asking families to send an email to bussing@sd62.bc.ca only if you no longer require transportation services for this current school year.
This information will provide greater certainty to the Board and will allow the important funding decisions to be made. We would ask that any families opting out of the transportation services send the email prior to October 3rd at 4:00 pm.
Since you’re here, we have a small favour to ask.
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This would be great if they offer a bus pass program. My son can’t take the bus as there is No spot for him but 50 bucks a month for a crap bus system isn’t helpful for families. Just saying
Not surprising, all those people who were never prepared to pay now suddenly need the bus now it’s free!
If you didn’t register within the window given at the end of the last school year(obviously some exceptions) you should be out of luck. If they really depended on the bus they would have registered prior to summer….very clear they’re taking advantage of that fact that it’s free this year.
Trudy Bishop same thing happened to me!
How did the district not see this coming? They have the addresses for all students and hopefully can do basic math. If they didn’t have the resources to offer the service to all the kids potentially using the buses then they should have acquired the resources/people and then offer the service. The rest of the country doesn’t have these issues. You live in the school district but not close enough to the school for your kids to walk then the school district has a space allotted for your kids if they use it everyday or not. That’s why we pay taxes.
The school district doesn’t get to decide how much of our taxes hours towards the schools. As mentioned, they will now be taking funding from classrooms. If you didn’t need a bus before it was free, you probably don’t need it now.
Should go back to the way it was. If you live within “x” km of your school you are not eligible for bus service.
if you take the rainbow painting cash from that department the kids can have lunch too
Even when I took a school bus for the last time 4 years ago it was WAY too crowded. No seats and you’d get yelled at to sit down but if there were no seats because no one had to use their passes you’d be kicked off. All because there’s too many kids!
P JR Allen