Parents whose kids take the school bus in the Sooke district will be paying bus fees again to help deal with a budget deficit.
Faced with a $2.8-million shortfall in its 2024-25 budget, the Sooke School Board decided to reinstate the fees, which were last charged in 2016 at $225 per rider per year.
The bus fee will be $300 per rider per year starting in September, although measures such as spreading out payments and creating a cap on what individual families pay are expected to be discussed at a June 11 committee meeting.
Board chairperson Amanda Dowhy said the shortfall was largely caused by “unfunded inflation pressures,” such as the increasing cost of the employee-benefit program and utilities.
She said the district also saw a $400,000 reduction in its annual operating grant from the province, after growing population in Colwood and Langford resulted in the school district being reclassified as a more urban area, which generally means lower transportation costs.
She said the funding decision was “a bit of a shock,” since the district is still geographically diverse with many rural areas.
“There’s not a lot of other districts that have that similar makeup,” she said. “Most tend to be either fairly urban or fairly rural, so this has been a bit of a shift for us as we see our district grow.”
The budget shortfall meant the school board had to either trim expenses or find more revenue, Dowhy said.
The board has considered reinstating bus fees for several years, and decided it was preferable to other budget options, such as cutting some counselling or reducing an early-childhood program for kindergarten and Grade 1 students, she said.
There was “a huge amount of support” from the public for retaining the programs, Dowhy said.
Tom Davis, incoming president of the Sooke Parents’ Education Advisory Council, said while nobody is happy about bus fees coming back, it’s better than cuts that would affect students.
“The district has, in my opinion, done a pretty good job of getting feedback and asking the questions,” Davis said. “They’ve involved our group since late last year with their budget pressures and looking for solutions.”
The overall 2024-25 budget totals $221 million.
The Saanich School District will finalize its 2024-25 budget on June 19, while the Greater Victoria School District passed a $318-million budget in April.
Greater Victoria trustees had to deal with a $6-million budget deficit, prompting them to bring in cuts like switching some music programs to a cheaper “hub” model that will centralize music classes at fewer schools.
All of B.C.’s 60 school districts are required to produce a balanced budget by June 30 each year.
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