THORHILD — Families in the Vilna, Smoky Lake and Rochester areas may see changes to public school transportation in the fall after Aspen View Public Schools (AVPS) trustees requisitioned a third-party attendance area review due to bussing concerns and an impending school closure.
Focus 10 Educational Consulting founder and president Dr. Lorne Parker and Jennifer Thompson made the trip from Edmonton to Thorhild to present the board with the results and recommendations following online and in-person stakeholder engagement conducted throughout February.
The review looked at all 58 bus routes across the division, the boundaries of each school’s attendance and bussing areas, and collected transportation feedback and priorities from families registered with AVPS.
While no changes to attendance areas for most schools were suggested, Focus 10 did recommend moving the east and southeastern boundaries of H. A. Kostash school to provide door-to-door bussing service for Vilna-area students enrolled in the new Smoky Lake facility.
“The feedback from this area was very clear this was desired,” Thompson told trustees. “That being said, we would recommend adding another bus if this boundary amendment is approved. Ride times are already higher, especially in that portion of the attendance area.”
The suggested extension would see the eastern line move further east between RR 140 and 141, and the southeastern boundary bumped up, starting at Township road 591A to Hwy 859.
Of the five families in the affected area registered with AVPS, all five attend H.A.K, but any new families in the area would not receive transportation to Vilna school. Focus 10 also cautioned trustees against further encroachments into its neighbour’s attendance area.
“Any further and the H.A.K boundary would include the Town of Vilna and would start to impact the viability of Vilna School. There is ample space at H.A.K to accommodate the students; that doesn’t necessarily mean we should be sending them there.”
Thompson flagged Vilna’s already declining enrolment as a marker the board should continue to monitor for the school’s viability in the future.
Focus 10’s second recommendation focused on the necessary redistribution of Rochester-area students for the upcoming school year. Trustees voted to close the hamlet school in January 2024 after enrolment dropped to one body above the threshold for more than $400,000 in crucial funding.
Related: BREAKING: Rochester School to close after the 2024-25 school year
By way of an online survey and in-person engagement session in February, Focus 10 posed three options to Rochester area families: delegate the entire attendance area to Athabasca schools, to Thorhild Central School, or split the attendance area between Athabasca and Thorhild.
Although Thompson said none of the proposed options emerged as a clear first choice for families, splitting the attendance area and providing bussing to both Athabasca and Thorhild received the most support from locals.
The creation of cross-boundary pick-up points was also recommended in order to give Rochester families the choice of preferred schools — that way, students nearer Thorhild wanting to attend Athabasca schools, or vice-versa, could still use provided transportation.
Trustees accepted Thomspon and Parker’s recommendations as information, and will meet with AVPS transportation department staff before bringing any formal boundary amendments to an upcoming trustee meeting.
Family feedback
In addition to gathering feedback during in-person engagement sessions in Vilna and Rochester, Focus 10 sent out surveys to all families enrolled in AVPS schools with questions around transportation priorities, wishes, and concerns.
A total of 253 survey responses were received, with nearly half from families with students in Athabasca-based schools. Feedback indicated the highest priorities for families when selecting schools to attend are availability of bussing and programming options offered.
Parents also rated the distance to school, friendships, and extra-curricular activities as important factors to consider.
Seventy-eight per cent of respondents said their students use bussing services provided by the division, and 64 per cent of those families reported being satisfied or very satisfied with bus pick-up and drop-off times.
Another 21 per cent reported being dissatisfied or very dissatisfied by their pick-up and drop-off times, and 15 per cent were neutral; more negative and neutral responses came from the Rochester, Smoky Lake and Vilna areas, while positive responses came from Athabasca, Boyle, Grassland, Smith and Thorhild families.
In an analysis of all 58 AVPS bussing routes, nearly half — 47 per cent — start before the board’s preferred time of 7:15 a.m. Five of seven routes to H.A.K start earlier than the preferred time, as do both of Smith School’s routes.
Thirteen of the 29 Athabasca routes begin before 7:15 a.m., as do three of five Boyle busses.
Of the 56 survey respondents whose students do not use AVPS bussing, 44 said they live too close or too far from their schools to qualify for bussing or prefer parental transportation. The other 12 families cited cost, driver issues, or long ride times as reasons they don’t use division bussing.
Parents also identified better communication around transportation changes as a key priority. Focus 10 compared AVPS communication policy around bus cancellations with 33 other school divisions serving rural areas, and found AVPS’s policy and practices to be above par in the province.
“Aspen View is doing great; Aspen View is doing exactly what others are or in fact they are over-performing than what other schools are in terms of communication,” said Thompson. “So what you can say is you’re doing the same as others, and it may not be perfect, but it is working so far.”
Focus 10 suggested the board consider implementing GPS tracking as one way to improve communication around transportation, and also highlighted additional bussing to schools of choice from outside attendance areas, and more transportation to after-school and extra-curricular activities as common feedback gathered.
“Each of these priorities come with associated costs,” reads Focus 10’s report. “In a review of other Alberta school divisions with rural components, AVPS is providing comparable service and faces similar limitations.”
“We do know if you were to, in a perfect world, meet all of those objectives, it would be a very expensive transportation system — extremely costly, more routes, more drivers, all that. ” said Thompson.
