After lots of hard work from the students, staff and parents at the Boyle School, their brand new extracurricular school bus has arrived.
Staff and students gathered excitedly around the bus after its arrival on Wednesday, and principal Art Shea was one of them.
“It feels awesome to finally get it,” he said, adding that the bus will mean a huge cost savings for the school, as they will no longer have to rent buses.
Fresh out of a pep rally for the girls volleyball team that was heading to the provincial tournament, he said the bus is yet another point for the school to be proud of.
The arrival of the vehicle, emblazoned with the school name, marks the end of an uncertain time for the entire school, after the discovery that their old bus was not fit for service at the beginning of the school year.
That left them in a predicament, unable to get students to regular extracurricular activities such as sports events and field trips. Aspen View School Division only covers the cost of bringing students to and from school.
Parents responded by picking up the slack, coordinating car pools to those events, while the Boyle School Parents Advisory Association initiated a fundraising effort to purchase a new bus as quickly as possible.
Starting in September the association was able to raise over $65,000 through various initiatives.
Chair of the association, Candy Nikipelo, praised the community’s efforts to help out with the bus.
A last minute fundraising drive at the school that raised over $1,200 in one day was added to $10,000 from the Village of Boyle and $25,000 from Alberta-Pacific Pulp Mill. A further $29,000 was raised from individuals and initiatives such as the purchasing of logos on the bus’ seats. In total, they raised $65,000.
“It feels like we’ve done a big accomplishment,” she said. “We had some who said we couldn’t do it, and we proved that we can.”
Their work though, is not yet complete. Their fundraising efforts fell $25,000 short of the $90,000 purchase price of the bus.
She explained that Aspen View School Board has covered the cost of the bus, and that they will continue their fundraising efforts to have the bus fully paid for as soon as possible.
“We just felt it was time to order it, we’ve been waiting for a long time here,” she added.
Superintendent of Schools for Aspen View, Brian LeMessurier, explained that the school board will invest the funds in order to accrue interest, and he fully expects the association to meet their goal quickly.
“They ran a very successful fundraising campaign, which speak volumes about the community’s dedication to education,” he said.
He added that there is a contingency plan for if the association cannot get the $25,000. The school would cover the cost through next year’s budget if it came down to it.
The association is still waiting on a decision on a proposed $25,000 donation from the County of Athabasca. Councillors have twice set back a decision on the donation, awaiting more information on similar decisions made in the past.
Councillor Larry Armfelt proposed matching Boyle’s $10,000 donation and loaning the association $15,000.
Nikipelo said the association cannot accept loans.
