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$100,000 needed for Boyle School extracurricular bus

Boyle School is without an extracurricular bus. On the first day of school the bus failed to pass inspection and was put out of commission. With the volleyball season approaching, the teams currently have no means of transportation to away games.
Last month, Al-Pac’s Community Enhancement Program donated $25,000 to the Boyle School Parent Advisory Association to assist in the purchase of a new extracurricular
Last month, Al-Pac’s Community Enhancement Program donated $25,000 to the Boyle School Parent Advisory Association to assist in the purchase of a new extracurricular school bus. Presenting the money was Cindy Bozon (right) and receiving it was association chair Candy Nikipelo. The need for the bus became more immediate recently when the old one failed to pass inspection.

Boyle School is without an extracurricular bus.

On the first day of school the bus failed to pass inspection and was put out of commission. With the volleyball season approaching, the teams currently have no means of transportation to away games.

Candy Nikipelo, chairperson for the Boyle School’s Parent Advisory Association, is spearheading the effort to find a shiny new bus for the school as soon as possible.

“Right now with budget cuts Boyle School doesn’t have the funds to purchase a bus on their own,” she said. “That’s why parent advisory association took it upon themselves to fundraise.”

The school is going to contribute what they can, but Nikipelo said that amount would be limited.

The bus was a 1992 model and was purchased used years ago. Unfortunately without an extracurricular bus, it’s the students who suffer.

“If they don’t get the bus, unfortunately there will be a lot of students that won’t have transportation to their extracurricular events,” she said. “It would mean that parents would have to drive them to these events or they do not attend them.”

The bus is used for field trips, away games, swimming lessons and post secondary visits.

“With school sports starting the school is definitely in dire need of another bus,” Nikipelo said. “We have done a bunch of fundraising, but we are just in the process of getting this going.”

The association is looking at selling seats on the new bus. First though, they need to figure out how.

“It’s new and unique and we think that the community and surrounding businesses will be supportive,” she said. “We’ve got some bigger companies in the area and we’re hoping it’s going to be attractive for people.”

The possibilities are patches on the seats that are stitched into the sponsors’ logos, or plaques attached to the walls in between seats.

“We’re definitely looking at logos on the outside of the bus for major sponsors,” she said. “We need to move on this rather quickly. We’re going to work real hard here in the next month and we anticipate that these seats are going to go really quickly.”

So far the association has raised $30,000 but the expected cost of the bus will be around the $100,000 mark.

“The bus is very well used. The reason we are trying to get the newest bus that we possibly can is because we don’t want this to happen again,” she explained. “Boyle School in particular has been hit hard. We’re down three teachers this fall, and we have had cut back after cut back. It’s been nothing but bad news for our school.”

Nikipelo said they want something they can be proud of.

“For once we would like to not have the oldest bus in the parking lot,” she said.

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