School bus service reinstated on Middleton Mountain

About 30 families who had their bus service cut to Coldstream Elementary received some good news on Wednesday.

School District 22 voted to reinstate bus service for students in the area.

Last year, students living on Middleton Mountain and attending Coldstream Elementary were grandfathered to Kidston Elementary.

But those students who wanted to stay at their original school were told by the district that they would need to find their own transportation because bus service would no longer be available.

The motion was put forward by Trustee Gen Acton, who believed it was unjust for the district to take bus service away from students who have already established familiarity and friendships at the school.

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“My concern is very much along with student well-being and student’s emotional health and I just think it is very unjust to move students out, they’ve been at that school, they’ve established their friendship groups and then expect them to transfer to a different school, and graduate with different students,” said Acton.

Bus service will only be provided for students already attending Coldstream Elementary prior to the boundary change.

Parents take action

The district’s decision to cut bus service from Middleton Mountain to Coldstream prompted some parents to take action.

Paige McDicken has attended nearly every board meeting since September to advocate for the parents.

She says the policy change prevented some mothers from taking on better jobs because they needed to transport their children to school.

At the last public meeting, she urged the district to make a decision, after realizing the issue was not even on the table.

This one parent addresses the board after kids in lower Middleton lost a bus to get to school at Coldstream elementary #vernonbc #bced #sd22 pic.twitter.com/cV2jnuHls8

— Tiffany Goodwein (@misstiff_94) April 18, 2019

“I’m kind of gobsmacked right now that we don’t even have a date nailed down, to even talk about this stuff,” said McDicken.

New policy

The motion put forward by Trustee Acton to reinstate bus service, prompted another trustee to introduce a policy change.

Trustee Mark Olsen asked the board to make a change to policy 10.1 so that eligible riders who are grandfathered into an existing school are able to maintain their eligible rider status for the remainder of the time they are in school.

The change proposed by Trustee Mark Olsen was approved by the board.

Bus service from Middleton Mountain to Coldstream Elementary will start next September.