Bus fees hiked
Over 1,000 St. Albert Public students will have to pay $282 more to ride the bus next year due to provincial budget cuts.
St. Albert Public board members voted Wednesday to raise bus fees for students who live 2.4 km or more from their designated school. Instead of riding for free, those students will now have to pay $282 to ride the bus for the rest of this school year. (The new fee is technically $470, but it has been prorated to cover the last six months of the school year.) Other bus fees are unchanged.
At the suggestion of Trustee Cheryl Dumont, the new fees will be due Feb. 1 instead of in January.
The mid-year hike comes as the board seeks to make up for a $2.9-million funding cut from the province, about $244,000 of which was for student busing.
Board chair Glenys Edwards said a recent survey found district parents favoured paying for busing through fees over taking money from instructional funds. The board decided not to make the fees retroactive to the start of the school year and to delay the due date until February to reduce the burden on families.
“We are running a deficit in transportation, but we just didn’t feel we could try and recover that much of a deficit all at once."
The new fees, which will affect about 1,400 of the district’s 3,000 bus riders, will reduce the district’s transportation deficit to about $530,000 from $900,000, Edwards said.
It’s the first time since 2016 these students have been charged a bus fee. Back then, the fee was $190 – much less than the $310 students who lived 1.6 to 2.4 km from school paid. The bus fee for both these groups today is $470.
Edwards said the board decided it could no longer give students who lived farther than 2.4 km from school a discount.
“We need to get closer to cost recovery when we’re running buses.”
Edwards said more hikes are likely next school year unless the province increases its support for student transportation.
Questions on the fees should go to the board’s transportation office at 780-460-3712.
Good ol’ Akins game
Lorne Akins students will once again get to school their teachers in hockey next week after scoring a tonne of food for the Kinettes.
Hundreds will be at the Jarome Iginla Arena next Friday for the annual Lorne Akins students vs. teachers hockey game. A tradition dating back to the 1970s, the event sees the school’s teachers take on students in a friendly hockey game, and since about 2005 has also served as a way for students to help out the less fortunate.
Game co-organizer and Lorne Akins teacher Shawn Andersen said students have been bringing in food and other donations all month to get tickets to enter into draws for prizes and spots on the student team. He expected to have about a ton of food ready for the Kinette Christmas Hamper program by Friday, Dec. 13.
The game itself will see three teams of about 15 players face off against the teachers, with each grade playing one period, Andersen said. Guests will also get to take in musical and figure-skating performances by students and compete in a mitten toss for a mystery prize.
While he hoped to draft some star-power such as Akins alumnus and St. Albert Merchants player Landon Bishop, Andersen said he wasn’t confident about the teacher team’s chances of winning.
“I think the teachers will be up against it this year,” he said – they’re an aging team, whereas many of the students are strong, six-foot-tall, bantam AAA hockey players.
“I’m pretty worried.”
The game runs from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Friday, Dec. 20. Admission is free and open to the public. Students and guests are encouraged to drop off food donations at Lorne Akins prior to game day.
