ATHABASCA — Inflation and its everyday consequences are on the minds — and wallets — of many across the province. Gas prices are high and climbing, and symptoms of the COVID-19 pandemic are still being felt in global supply chains.
Albertans are seeing their dollars cover less and less, and Aspen View school division is no exception to the heightened financial burdens of today’s economy — especially when it comes to student transportation.
According to end-of-year financial reports from the 2022-2023 school year, Aspen View spent 110 per cent of its budgeted funds on transportation. The extra 10 per cent equates to just under half a million dollars, coming in at $483,296, on top of the $4,790,024 budgeted for transportation the year.
“The landscape has really changed around transportation costs, and it’s happened really quickly,” said Costantine Kastrinos, superintendent and CEO of schools for the division during the Oct. 5 board of trustees meeting at Grassland school.
So far, so good
Secretary-treasurer Amber Oko cited rising contract costs as the biggest factor in the gap between the 2022-2023 budget and actual costs for transportation. High staff turnaround, new driver training expenses, and significantly higher costs for new bus routes in recent years are only a few of the driving factors behind the hike in contract costs.
Oko told trustees transportation spending for the 2023-2024 school year is currently on track during the Oct. 26 meeting held at Smith school. Her report notes the division is 8.3 per cent through the year, and she said “transportation sitting at 10.48 per cent is accurate, as we’re at one-tenth through the year for transportation… so far, so good.”
The division has budgeted $4,929,312 for the 2023-2024 school year, an increase of $139,288 from last years budget. The additional funds cover not quite a third of the gap between last year's budget and actual, but a communications officer from Aspen View noted changes to provincial funds available for student transportation would also help to bridge the anticipated gap.
“Historically, students who lived within 2.4 kilometres from a school were not funded for transportation; for 2023/24 that has changed: K-6 students are eligible for transportation funding if they live more than 1.0 km from their school, and Grade 7-12 students are eligible if they live more than 2.0 km from a school,” read a Nov. 2 email from Aspen View.
“It is important to note that in many of our rural communities, Aspen View has historically provided transportation to students within 2.4 kilometres, as students could not be expected to walk safely to school.” The email noted the new amount of revenue expected from the province is yet to come, following the completion of the Transportation Grant application due at the end of November.
Contractor concerns
Mark Critch, president of Sparksman Transportation — Aspen View’s largest school bus contractor — and president of the Alberta School Bus Contractors Association, said he doesn’t expect cost increases to stop in the near future: “I don’t believe we’re anywhere close to being out of this.”
Sparksman, operating out of both Fort McMurray and Athabasca, has provided Aspen View with school bus contracting and occasional charter services for the past four years and is currently operating 41 of the divisions’ 59 active routes.
Critch echoed Oko’s sentiment, citing high staff turnover and driver training as continuing drains on resources. “Training costs have gone up drastically because of the shortage of bus drivers and the amount of turnover,” he said.
“You can make full-time hours working for just about any other industry,” said Critch. The part-time hours and segmented schedules that come with driving a school bus aren’t as attractive to drivers, especially in a strained economy, he added.
As a result of the turnover, Critch said contractors, “become a full-time training institute, essentially, just to try to keep drivers on the road.” Costs for training have remained relatively constant but did see a hike in 2019 when Mandatory Entry Level Training, or MELT, became a requirement for Class 2 drivers.
As the president of the Alberta School Bus Contractors Association, which represents 86 members and more than 4,100 buses, Critch pointed out the factors impacting Aspen View’s transportation costs are being felt all across the province — and driver security is only one cog in the machine.
Contractors, “have been hit with crippling cost increases" and insurance, fuel, bus costs and parts have all seen price jumps that are putting contractors, and their clients, in tough positions.
Insurance costs for small contractors have increased six-fold over three years, from approximately $1,100 per bus to as high as $6,500 in 2022. The costs of vehicles have also risen, from around $100,000 for a 70-passenger school bus to $170,000 over roughly five years. Part prices have seen a jump between 40 and 60 per cent, and as high as 150 per cent, depending on the part, Critch said.
“That, along with everything else we’re dealing with in regular life like everyone else, the inflation that we’re all being hit with, it’s made it very, very difficult to operate school buses,” said Critch.
Options for Aspen View
In the face of what some analysts have dubbed a looming recession and a not-so-optimistic forecast from Critch, Aspen View does have options to tackle their transportation troubles.
“One alternative is to operate the transportation department at a deficit, which means that funds are redirected from other areas of the budget, or drawn from reserves,” read the division’s email statement. “Another alternative would be increasing transportation fees to help to offset costs.
In addition to the changes to the student transportation funding model, Aspen View receives Fuel Price Contingency Funding from the province during times when the average monthly price of diesel in Alberta exceeds $1.25 per litre. Funds are received by the school division and provided to contractors to cover fuel costs. Funding requests are also submitted for driver training expenses reimbursement under the School Bus Driver Grant.
“Rural sustainability is a key advocacy priority for Aspen View,” read the division's statement. “Our Board of Trustees continues to be active in its advocacy for provincial funding that recognizes the unique realities within rural Alberta, including those related to student transportation.”
