Parents with students in Rocky View Schools (RVS) district can expect to see an increase in fees in the fall.
The RVS board of trustees voted unanimously to hike instructional fees $10 and busing fees $50 for students within the division, March 21.
The move was made in response to a decrease in provincial funding, the result of cuts made to education in the 2013 Alberta Budget, which was tabled March 7.
“We are put in a position where things get cut and we still have to maintain service,” said Colleen Munro. “There’s a new definition of taxes.”
Increasing instructional fees will bring in $140,000, the equivalent of 1.5 teachers, according to Darrell Couture, associate superintendent of business and operations.
The new fees will be $105 for students in grades 1 through 8 and $145 for students in grades 9 through 12 and summer school. Kindergarten students will continue to pay $25, the same as last year.
According to Couture, raising busing fees will bring in an additional $480,000 in revenue, only partially covering the reduction in grants for transportation.
“Our loss in revenue is really $1 million,” he said. “Without the $50 increase, we would have definitely had to decrease service.”
Couture said the division was able to offset part of the reduced grants by drawing from RVS’ transportation reserve. He added the division hopes to increase its work with other jurisdictions to create efficiencies and potentially cash in on future “cooperative busing” grants, to keep future busing costs down.
The new busing fees will increase from $115 to $165 for rural students and $135 to $185 for urban students. RVS will continue to cap expenses at $330 per family for rural students and $370 for urban students.
Kindergarten students will continue to ride the bus for free.
Trustee Bev LaPeare expressed frustration that parents will be forced to pay the increased fees.
“It just seems wrong that parents have to cushion this,” she said. “It seems we are holding the parents hostage because of the government’s mismanagement of money.”
