Last week, the Pembina Hills Public Schools’ board made a decision that, as one trustee put it, was going to “piss someone off” no matter the outcome.
That decision was to continue allowing some students to ride transfer buses to schools outside of their attendance areas, maintaining the status quo — it was a difficult choice, as reflected in the 4-3 vote.
This wouldn’t have had a huge impact even if it went ahead: in total there were only 50 students riding transfer buses who would have been affected.
But it was nonetheless a very big deal to that handful of families.
Other parents, particularly in the Fort Assiniboine area, were all for it, arguing (as they had for years) that Pembina Hills was hurting small schools by transporting kids away from them.
We previously argued in favour of letting kids ride transfer buses, and we stand by that position.
Even in a best-case scenario where all the students riding transfer buses to schools of choice went back to their designated school — and many of these parents indicated that wouldn’t be the case — that would only mean four more students at Busby and five more students at Pembina North.
Twenty-four more students would be going to Eleanor Hall School, but Eleanor Hall doesn’t have enrolment issues.
How can we justify letting one group of kids to ride transfer buses and not another when there are empty seats on a bus? How can we say to parents “You can’t put your kids on here because we said so,” even when they’re willing to pay for the privilege?
That said, we can totally understand the other side of the argument. This service is not something other school districts offer, and it probably does contribute at least a little to the declining enrolment problem.
We heard some people complain about their local school, but you can’t offer better programs without more students. It’s a snake eating its own tail.
We would like to say this was absolutely the right decision, but really, there was no absolute right or wrong in this situation.
