For the past few years, Suzanne Beldycki has relied on a school bus to take her three young children to class each morning at precisely 7:57 a.m. and bring them home at 3:30 p.m.
But as the school year turned to summer vacation, she had no idea her kids would be without a lift come September.
The Toronto Catholic District School Board has eliminated bus service in the coming school year for students who live within 1.5 kilometres of their school, leaving parents such as Beldycki high and dry.
“It is an essential service to a lot of parents, especially working parents,” said the Etobicoke mom, whose children will range from kindergarten to Grade 4 in the fall.
The cuts affect more than 7,000 elementary students who do not qualify for school bus service.
On Monday, the TCDSB will hold a special board meeting at 7 p.m. at the Catholic Education Centre to review the changes and hear concerns.
“Now working parents are left in a situation where they have to scramble to understand what they’re going to be doing for the 2016-17 school year,” Beldycki said. “Someone like me, it’s not like I can tell my employer ‘listen I’ve got to drop my kids off at school so I’m going to be in at 9:30 every day.’ I’ll be fired.”
The move comes as a result of the school board’s $9.1 million transportation budget shortfall, according to TCDSB spokesperson John Yan.
As required by law, the school board approved a balanced budget at its June 2 meeting. This included savings of $2.45 million in reduced busing service for the upcoming school year, among other cuts. Of this figure, the TCDSB is saving about $1 million by cutting bus services for those closer than 1.5 kilometres to their school.
Yan said the school board’s busing policy already required students to live at least 1.5 kilometres from the school prior to this budget, however buses with spare seats picked up those who lived on the way to the school as well.
“So all we’re doing is we’re actually adhering to a policy,” he said, adding that parents had a chance to weigh in on the potential change during budget consultations earlier this year.
But many parents say the decision came as a shock, and that they only found out about it through a letter sent home with their kids just before school let out for the summer.
“My son came home and told me ‘Mommy, no more bus,’” said Patricia Giovanni, whose seven and 10-year-old sons attend St. Norbert Catholic School in North York.
The school board clarified in its letter to parents that Ontario’s Education Act does not mandate it to provide students transportation.
Giovanni said she feels her area is too dangerous for her children to walk alone, as the route to school includes crossing a major intersection at Wilson Avenue and Ancaster Road.
“There’s no sidewalk on my street. There’s a construction zone,” she said. “The fact that they have to go through a parking lot to get to Wilson is dangerous. Cars are ramming up that ramp to park. They go around the kids, they don’t care. It’s not a long walk, it’s a challenging walk.”
At some schools, the TCDSB offers “walking school buses,” according to Yan, which would help some students who live in the same areas get home safely in groups, guided by an adult.
Nicole Simunac, who has one child just finishing kindergarten and another entering, said a walk is still inconvenient for many people’s children, even if safety issues are limited.
“For someone like me with two little kids, to ask them to walk over a kilometre to school and home after a full day of school, it doesn’t make sense,” she said. “I can understand maybe a 13-year-old being able to walk, but to ask a six-year-old and a four-year-old, I think is ridiculous.”
A Facebook group created by Giovanni to unite parents opposing the change, as well as a similar online petition may convince trustees to reverse their decision.
Toronto councillor Maria Augimeri, a former school trustee, plans to speak at the meeting in support of parents upset by the busing cuts.
“Once you take a sober second thought and a second look at this, you’ll see that people are hurting,” said Augimeri, who said she plans to argue in favour of a partial reversal of the decision in situations that “present that greatest hazard.”
In order to reopen the budget, it would require the support of two-thirds of trustees.
Those such as Giovanni say they may be out of options if the school board doesn’t change its mind.
“It’s going to be drastic for me, I don’t know what I’m going to do,” she said. “I guess I’d have to quit my job. They’re my kids.”
