Prairie South School Division has approved the requests of three rural families for changes to their school transportation plans while denying the requests of four other families.
The seven requests were presented during the board of education’s May 4 meeting as part of a transportation report. Trustees voted unanimously to approve the catchment area recommendations that the rural catchment committee put forward for the 2021-22 school year.
Families or individuals wishing to change their school catchment area allowing transportation to another school must apply to do so, the report said. This year’s deadline was April 15; on April 20, division administration met with rural trustees to deal with the applications.
The committee approved the following requests:
- A family in Coronach was initially approved to attend Bengough via a one-year feeder bus pilot project this school year. Students took a Coronach bus and met a Bengough bus in Big Beaver. This plan has been approved for another year and will be reviewed before the 2022-23 school year.
- A family in Lindale currently uses alternate yard service transportation and rides an Eyebrow bus to Eyebrow School. That municipality catchment is 3.2 kilometres (two miles) from the residence. This arrangement will continue.
- A family in Mortlach uses alternate yard service transportation and rides a Central Butte bus to Central Butte School. This municipal catchment is located four kilometres (2.5 miles) from the residence. This arrangement will continue
Meanwhile, the committee denied the following requests:
- A Mankota family uses alternate yard service transportation and takes a Kincaid bus to Kincaid Central School. The Kincaid catchment area is 2.4 kilometres from the residence. The request for a new transportation plan was denied and alternate yard service was offered.
- A Rockglen family wants to attend Glentworth, even though the Glentworth School catchment area is nearly 10 kilometres from the residence. The request was denied and alternate yard service was offered.
- A Lafleche family uses alternate yard service transportation and rides an Assiniboia bus to that community’s Seventh Avenue School. The catchment transportation area is 2.4 kilometres from the residence. The request was denied and alternate yard site service was offered; this will be reviewed after the Assiniboia bus routes are established in 2021-22.
- A Mossbank family wants to attend Lindale School, which is 6.4 kilometres from the residence. The request was denied and alternate yard service was offered.
Board discussion
It can be “quite a complex strategy” to create a transportation plan for a school division that is spread across a large geographical area, said trustee Crystal Froese. She commended division staff for working on this plan and attempting to accommodate the requests, especially since the outcome is not a simple yes or no answer.
There is a process to assist decision-making with these requests, including feedback from rural trustees, local knowledge of these areas and understanding of the quality of roads, said trustee Shawn Davidson. Only three requests were approved since they made sense based on current transportation.
“Some of these were a very significant distance out of their catchment area this year, and that’s not something that we as a board are interested in doing,” he continued. “Particularly, we look at some of those catchments for Moose Jaw and Assiniboia that are particularly large and there’s really not a lot of movement to make those larger despite the fact we continue to get requests for that to happen.”
There are parameters with these requests, including not increasing ride times for students, Davidson added. The division provides buses to rural students and the catchment boundaries — which are reviewed every year — determine where they go.
The next PSSD board meeting is Tuesday, June 1.
