Melanie Béchard Staff writer
Wednesday, March 21, 2007

FORT FRANCES—A decision by the local public school board to contract out busing services in Atikokan has left students and parents concerned it will negatively affect their school programs, though the board denies this is the case.
The Rainy River District School Board voted against a motion to replace the 12-year-old school bus at Atikokan High School at its March 6 meeting.

The board’s transportation policy states no bus will be operated for more than 12 years.
AHS principal Darryl Gannon made a presentation to the board’s finance/transportation committee Feb. 5 to outline the importance of the bus to the school.
It is used for school activities only, and not for transporting students between home and school.
The committee decided to delay its recommendation to the board until the March 6 meeting, where six of seven trustees voted not to replace the bus and to contract out the service instead.
“Their concern was more risk management,” said Education Director Jack McMaster.
“[Trustees] looked at us having our own bus, what liability comes with owning your own bus—meaning physical breakdowns, as well as liabilities with respect to insurance and accidents and those kinds of things—versus contracting out to a company that is in the transportation business.
“The cost wasn’t something that was really coming into play,” he added.
Board staff completed a two-year cost analysis of operating the bus based on data provided by the school and found the cost of purchasing a new bus—about $100,000—was not the main issue.
“It’s not necessarily a funding issue. It’s really a risk-management issue for trustees,” McMaster reiterated.
By contracting out the bus service, AHS still will be able to enjoy all the activities it does now, but without the liability.
Some parents are concerned this decision will mean the end of “Outers,” an outdoor education program designed to help students connect with the natural environment by learning survival skills, as well as to promote personal growth.
The bus also is used frequently by the Natural Resource Technology (NRT) program, and parents and students fear it also will suffer as a result of the decision.
“As much as they say we won’t lose Outers and NRT, we believe we may lose them both,” said Darlene Cox, a member of AHS parent council and mother of three students at the school.
If those two popular and original programs should fold, AHS will lose many students to Thunder Bay, where they will have more courses to choose from, she warned.
“That’s not the case at all,” countered McMaster. “The trustees have infused additional funds into Atikokan High School to ensure that NRT and Outers still run.”
In addition to the base compensation and enrolment compensation all schools get for transportation, the local public board has set aside an additional $3,000 for NRT and Outers “to ensure they are not impacted upon,” McMaster explained.
“The services are still going to be there,” he stressed. “There will be kids going on Outers trips, going on NRT trips, going on their extracurricular trips, going on their phys. ed. trips.
“It’ll still be there. The fear of losing these programs is unfounded.”
This additional funding will not be enough to cover the costs of the many other trips the current bus is used for, Cox argued.
“We use it for so many things besides our Outers,” she said.
Each year, for instance, there’s a ski trip to Biwabik in the winter and a golf trip there in the spring.
The tourism class goes to Minneapolis each semester, the Grade 8 year-end trip to Winnipeg is taken in the bus, and other educational trips to Thunder Bay and Winnipeg are made possible by having that bus, Cox said.
Without it, the costs for these trips will go up for every student. “There’s no way we’d be able to afford to send them,” she said.
The original programs at AHS are an important part of the identity of the school, Cox continued, and the bus makes that identity possible.
“It’s not just the loss of a vehicle,” she remarked. “It’s not just a bus. It’s what allows us to be who we are.
“Our students are getting an education they wouldn’t get anywhere else.”
“It’s an outdoor-oriented school. They have a heck of a program there,” agreed McMaster.
In the end, however, the survival of the program will depend not on the bus service, but on enrolment, which continues to decline across the district.
“Part of being prepared for the future includes managing your risk,” McMaster added.
The decision has been made—and the board is moving on to other business.
“I’m not trying to minimize the importance to Atikokan at all, but I view this as a change of service,” McMaster said.
“The bus situation in Atikokan is a hard decision for the people of Atikokan,” he added. “But we’ve got a lot tougher decisions to make than replacing a service.
“We’re trying to develop a learning environment for kids 40 years from now,” McMaster stressed.
Parents and students are so concerned about the bus that each group is planning their own events to protest the board’s decision.
Students planned a walk-out Wednesday at 11 a.m. while the parent council had organized a public meeting at 7 p.m. to inform the community of the decision and what impact they think it will have.
“Our main goal for the meeting is an information session to educate our community and hopefully our board, if they come,” Cox said.
“Decisions can be reversed,” she added.