School District 22 approves new bus fees

Apr 25, 2019 | 1:03 PM

New bus fees are on the way for students at School District 22.

Starting next school year, all students who take the bus will be subject to a $25.00 registration fee.

Students who are classified as courtesy riders will have to pay a $175.00 fee, in addition to the $25.00 registration fee.

The board approved the new fees at their public board meeting on Wednesday.

School district 22 has passed bus rider user fees . #breaking #vernonbc #bced pic.twitter.com/KO04I2oIek

— Tiffany Goodwein (@CityNewsTiffany) April 25, 2019

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During the meeting, Trustee Mark Olson asked the board to consider moving the decision to the next board meeting in May, but other trustees disagreed.

” If we keep putting it off day by day by day or meeting by meeting it is going to take a long time, and plus I actually am for the bus rider user fees, I think it’s nice to get at least one of them out of the way, instead of putting everything off to another meeting,” said Trustee Lori Mindnich.

” I will speak in favor of what Trustee Mindnich is saying $200 is certainly better than $300, and yes I think we need to come to a resolution on this thing,” said chair of the board Robert Lee.

Trustee Jen Comazetto said she’s worried that the fees may cause financial hardships for families with many children.

“It just seems to me like we are penalizing families for having lots of kids,” she said

She asked the board to cap the fees so that families would only have to pay for a maximum of three children.

Trustee Gen Acton suggested just capping the courtesy rider fee, but Trustee Jen Comazetto said the financial impact would still be significant for families with several children.

” Well I could see if families are signing up for the bus that if they are going to sign up three kids they are going to sign up all their kids,” said Comazetto.

” This still affects the amount of extra programs that these families can get into, so we are still having a financial impact that is stronger or larger on families with multiple children,” she added.

The board approved Trustee Comazetto’s amendment to the original bus rider fee motion.

Parents with more than three children will only have to pay a total of $75.00 in registration fees and a maximum of $600 in courtesy rider fees.

Bus fees became a point of contention for some parents after the district imposed a $300 courtesy rider fee for students this past school year.

The move prompted some parents to start a petition asking the board to remove the fees.

The district said the fees were necessary to deal with a budget shortfall.

Since the courtesy rider fee was implemented this past September, the district admits ridership has dropped by 1000 riders.