Rocky View Schools (RVS) is prioritizing accessible transportation while supporting families amid rising costs.
The regular transportation fee has been raised by $70 for Grades 1 to 12 in 2025-26, while maintaining family and early registration discounts—introducing a half-price rate for Kindergarten students and charging a full feel for students requiring access to a second stop. This way, RVS says it can sustain service levels within budget and keep instructional funds focused on classroom.
The recommendation came from the Transportation Committee. The regular transportation fees this year will be $395 per year, which increased over the current rate of $325.
The early registration incentive is also recommended for families to look into considering it reduces last minute transportation registrations in September. The partial payment provides an indication of the parent or guardian's commitment to have their children on the bus starting in fall.
This is essential for RVS transportation, because having the registrations done in advance makes organizing the routes much easier.
During the RVS board meeting on April 17, trustees discussed their commitment to ensuring students have a safe and accessible transportation while minimizing the impact of rising costs, especially when it comes to transportation; however, mounting costs require an increase in the fee to close the gab between government funding and the costs for providing the service.
"Given all the unknown variables where transportation were discussed for the 2024-25 budget year, it was determined to leave fees at the same level and utilize reserves to fund the additional cost forecast for the current year," RVS Board of Trustees Chair Fiona Gilbert said.
The Alberta Transportation Grant for the 2025-26 year increased by 2.3 per cent compared to the previous year, so in essence, it was the cost of living increase, she added.
Overall, costs increase relates to contractor services, which are anticipated to increase to reflect a few factors. For example, the consumer price index is slightly over two per cent for some of RVS contract bus service operators; for two of RVS' largest operators, the increase for the 2024-25 school year was 25 per cent; and for the 2025-26, a scheduled increase of 12 per cent to effectively provide a 40 per cent increase over two years.
"This is a one time correction to bring them near the market rates and contracts will resume providing Consumer Price Index (CPI) increases for the 2026-27 school year," Gilbert said.
According to Gilbert, one of the primary reasons why there was a big increase in cost is due to some input costs related to provision of transportation services have outpaced CPI year over year, which precipitated to amend the existing ten year term contracts for the two large contract bus operators.
RVS provides transportation to approximately 13,500 students each year on more than 300 routes; these numbers are predicted to rise for this school year as enrolment increases.
