Catholic school trustee calls for school bus equity
Catholic school trustee Fulvio Valentinis wants all secondary school students to have equal access to buses.
The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, on Tuesday, discussed its busing policy, which provides a paid service to those living in the county, but not within Windsor city limits.
Anyone living in Windsor has to pay $66 a month to ride buses.
"It's something that we have to address," Valentinis said.
He suggested officials from the Windsor-Essex Student Transportation Services approach Transit Windsor to get a reduced rate of $48.40 a month.
Valentinis wants that pass to be available for all students who need it.
Who will pay for it?
Valentinis wants the price of the bus passes to be shared. A staff report presented to the board shows that kind of program would cost the Catholic school board at least $470,000 a year.
"This is an important decision of the board because we're going to be talking about dedicating dollars, not just for today, not just for tomorrow, but well into the future," said Barbara Holland, chairwoman of the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board.
Holland says this will take money away from programming, an issue the board should take very seriously.
"One of the focuses of this board has been on student programming, where all children benefit from that programming," she said. "Any money we take from some place else that we do not put on programming kind of goes against the grain."
Holland says the issue should be given to transportation services, the group responsible for transportation of all four school boards in the region.
"I think it would be really fruitful if all four groups come up with a way that we could do it together, that would reduce our costs and it would enhance a service that any student would get," she said.
Trustees plan to talk about busing again at its next meeting on Oct. 25.
