Alberta Education is aiming to reduce the length of bus rides for students in the Golden Hills School Division. Some students must endure a commute of an hour each way.
The initiative is meant to address the negative impact that a long bus ride can have on students.
“Transportation times can have a profound impact on students' school-home life balance and, ultimately, their educational experience,” said Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk.
The Golden Hills School Division, which includes areas such as Drumheller, Three Hills, and Strathmore, will explore ways of reducing bus times for students.
Ideas being considered are finding areas that can be made more efficient and adding more bus routes.
“We would need new bus drivers. We might use spare buses, buy new buses, or increase some contract runs,” explained Ken MacLean, transportation manager of Golden Hills School Division. “We want to maintain the rest of our service,”
The “Rural Ride Time Reduction Project” will focus on roughly 130 students who spend more than an hour travelling to or from school each day.
“Our school division includes a large geographic area where many students experience long bus rides to and from school,” said Golden Hills Board Chair David Price. “We look forward to this project to learn what reduced ride times will mean to our students and their families.”
Golden Hills will not be the only school division targeted by Alberta Education for new ways to improve bus rides.
The Prairie Rose School Division, which serves the area surrounding Medicine Hat, will be the trial run for the “School Bus Wi-Fi Initiative.”
Basically, buses will be equipped with Wi-Fi with the hopes students can get a head start on coursework during their commute.
The estimated costs for the projects is $350,000 in Golden Hills and $210,000 in Prairie Rose. The “Rural Ride Time Reduction Project” will start in early April and end with the 2011/2012 school year.
“The pilot project is meant to ensure the ride time for any student is not over an hour,” said MacLean. “Ride time has always been a concern. Everybody would prefer a shorter ride.”
