The Rocky View School board held three meetings in early February to consult parents and stakeholders on how to come up with a solution to the one million dollar transportation deficit the board faces. 

 Airdrie MLA Angela Pitt attended one of those meetings and says she could feel the frustration in the room. 

"As a parent myself I am extremely frustrated by this, I can feel the frustration of parents that have been contacting me because it's not fair.  We have some families on the same street that don't have to pay for busing and other families who are paying more in busing than they have ever paid for before" 

Under Bill 1, any student that lives 2.4 kilometres or more from their school will not have to pay transportation fees as well as kindergarten students who require noon hour buses. 

"There was a mix of rural and city parents," says Pitt, "The rural parents are not allowed to pay fees under the NDP's bill one but are more than willing to pay those fees because they are facing some difficult choices, some of those means their children are going to be forced to be on the bus for a lot longer than they are now."

According to RVS superintendent Greg Luterbach, there were roughly 35-45 parents that attended each meeting. The Rocky View School Division is planning on holding online surveys this month (March) after having a successful Survey in February that saw over 2,000 responses.  

Pitt also says that there are many factors contributing to the budget shortfall with most of the problems stemming from Legislation put in place by the NDP. 

"The Rocky View school Division has made it very clear that they are facing this transportation shortfall due to the lack of funding they are receiving under bill one and in relation to the carbon tax." 

RVS is planning on making their decision on how to combat the shortfall at their April 12th Meeting.

READ MORE:

RVS Holds Consultations On Transportation Shortfall

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