Lethbridge School Division Superintendent Cheryl Gilmore speaks to Lethbridge City Council. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Lethbridge school boards: severing bussing partnership with city makes no sense

Dec 3, 2019 | 10:39 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The Lethbridge School Division (LSD) and Holy Spirit Catholic School Division (HSC) are pleading city council to reconsider their decision to no longer partner with the schools on bussing students as of the end of the 2019-2020 school year.

That was of one the outcomes of Phase One of the Fiscal and Operational Review Report, which looked to find efficiencies across the City of Lethbridge’s operations.

The Superintendents of both divisions say the 50-year partnership has been nothing but successful and makes fiscal sense.

As seen in the chart below, LSD and HSC received a combined $2,817,400 grant from the provincial government to cover transportation in 2018-2019, resulting in a budget surplus of $74,351.

School bussing budget in 2019-2020. (Supplied by City of Lethbridge)

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This means that LSD and HSC are among only eight of 61 school divisions in Alberta that do not have a deficit in the transportation section of their overall budget.

The problem, explains Mayor Chris Spearman, is risk.

Right now, the City of Lethbridge has insurance liability coverage of up to $2-million.

In the event that there were a major collision that resulted in several people, particularly children, getting injured, the cost of damages could be well above $2-million. That is without accounting for any lawsuits that might be launched.

Spearman believes an accident like this would cost the city an extraordinary amount of money and that this is something the municipality simply cannot bear the brunt of.

The mayor wants to eliminate all of the risk on the city’s part when it comes to school buses.

LSD Superintendent Cheryl Gilmore explains that the city technically does pay for insurance for the buses, but the school boards end up reimbursing them for it.

HSC Superintendent Chris Smeaton adds that they are willing to work out a new system of insurance coverage and potentially increase the liability amount if needed.

“I think, in a true partnership, everyone’s going to take a little bit of risk, and given our conversations that we’ve had with our insurance providers, I think we can come to a very good agreement that would support the city’s needs and our school divisions.”

If the City of Lethbridge does indeed end the school bus partnership, the school boards would have to have a new system in place before the start of September 2020 in time for the next school year.

Gilmore is concerned that the only way they would be able to do that on time is by going with a private, for-profit company.

“If a company who does a service for profit, obviously that means they’re making money on a service, so when you’re engaged in a cost-neutral arrangement like we are right now with the city, that means we’re able to cover all costs because no one is making money. Private companies go into the business for a reason.”

Because this hypothetical private company would have the additional profit motive, Gilmore says they would either have to charge families $200-$300 per student per year for bussing, dip into their reserves, or cut the budgets for classroom instruction. Either way, the grant from the province would stay the same.

Both Gilmore and Smeaton were caught off guard by the initial announcement by the city, and if they were given more notice, they might be able to work out a system of student transportation on their own in time.

Councillor Blaine Hyggen asked if giving the school boards an extra year would help in this regard. The Superintendents replied that this would be ideal and would minimize the impacts on families and classrooms.

All parties agreed to discuss the matter further.