Kelowna school district bus fees rise again

By DANIEL JOHNSTON

Another annual increase in school bus fees for parents with children in the Central Okanagan have the possibility of making services unaffordable. “As much as I love it, this might be too much for my family to afford. So I might not be able to have my kids in school transit,” said Trustee Lisa Guderyan.

On Feb 19, the Central Okanagan school district increased fees for students who ride the school bus by $75 for the upcoming 2025-26 school year, in a unanimous vote. Parents in the district currently pay $450 per child to ride the school bus. With this increase, the cost will be $525 per child for the school year, equating to $2.87/day vs. $3.28/day.

Despite this increase and the revenue it will bring, the school bus system still runs a large deficit for the school district. 

“We want to make sure that as many funds stay in the classroom as possible, and so this transportation fee increase is needed to subsidize the amount that’s coming out of operating to ensure that we’re able to give the best quality of education to our students,” Guderyan said.

$4 million shortfall for the bussing system

With the revenue that the ridership fees brought this year, the shortfall run up by the bussing system is projected to reach $4.4 million. (https://pub-sd23.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=8083)

“The reality is that inflation has gone up so much that we are continuing to take additional funds out of our operating budget to subsidize the school bus system,” said Trustee Chantelle Desrosiers.

Even with the increased fees, this number is projected to rise to $4.5 million in the 2025-26 school year. The additional funds used to support the school bus system come out of classrooms, Guderyan said.

The fees for riders were introduced in the 2010-11 school year, starting at $200/year. In the next year, the fees were dropped by $100, only to be increased the following year. The 2025-2026 fee is unprecedentedly high for the district, although the $75 is not.

Every year since 2018, the provincial government has given the Central Okanagan school district $600,000 to help run it’s school bus program for subsidy riders: riders who come from families unable to afford the fee. 

Unlike the rising cost of operations, and the yearly price for parents, the amount of monetary support to run its bus system SD23 receives from the provincial government has remained unchanged.

Financial help for families

Fortunately, there exists a hardship policy for families who struggle to pay the fees. Of the 5,467 riders projected to take the school bus, 575 are subsidy riders. “We, in no way, would ever support a financial burden being such that parents couldn’t get their children to school,” Desrosiers said.

Parents have the option to either submit a form requiring financial information, approved by the secretary treasurer, or speak to their principal; the latter of not requiring financial proof. Both options are confidential for parents and the district.

“We have two methods in which you can apply for financial hardship, because we recognize that can look very different for we also understand that people can feel intimidated by one particular method,” Desrosiers said.

Nicola Baker, President of the Central Okanagan Parent Advisory Council, says the geographic distribution of the school district and the way Kelowna has expanded is a big factor in why it costs so much to get kids to school.

“As the city has developed, we’re going up the mountains into more remote areas,” she said. “So you tend to then be bringing students to the school, instead of bringing the school to the students.”

“I think we would really love to see more communication across all levels of government in the province, such that public education is always part of that conversation,” Baker said.