Windsor school boards ask council to pause cancelling school extras, consider alternatives
City council was pitched a similar plan last year and decided to keep the buses running
Administrators at Windsor's largest school boards want city council to stop a plan to eliminate and redeploy Transit Windsor buses that high school students pay for to get to school.
These buses are called school extras, and run special routes that only high school students can pay to ride to school and back home.
In the proposed 2025 budget is a plan that would eliminate these specific routes and redeploy the buses across the system.
The changes, according to the budget document, would extend existing routes to replace the school extras and increase frequency on other routes in the city.
LISTEN: School board directors elaborate on letter protesting loss of extra transit routes serving Windsor high schools
Parents, students and school board administrators at the Greater Essex County District School Board and the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board have criticized the decision.
"Put it on pause until we've had further dialogue to see if we can come up with some possible solutions for our students that would benefit their budget pressures," said Emelda Byrne, director of education for the WECDSB.
Both Byrne and Vicki Houston, director of education for the GECDSB, said they found out about the plan through media reports.
"There hasn't been, in my opinion, a very thorough consultation process," said Houston.
650 students pay to take these buses daily
City council will meet next Monday, Jan. 27, to debate Mayor Drew Dilkens's proposed budget, which needs to be approved before Feb. 3.
The buses run to Vincent Massey, Holy Names, Riverside and St. Joseph's Catholic high schools and are used by 650 students daily, according to the school boards.
In the proposed budget, Transit Windsor would eliminate these buses and increase service on other public routes in the city:
- Extending the Dougall 6 (Route 205) into Southwood Lakes to replace the school extras.
- Change Parent 14 (Route 315) to service Devonshire Heights, currently covered by school extras.
- Increasing the frequency of the South Windsor 7 (Route 240), Walkerville 8 (Route 135) and Route 115 (formerly Dominion 5).
Budget documents say nine buses, or between eight and 10 per cent of the city's usable fleet, are entirely dedicated to these routes, and can't be used elsewhere during the day because of logistics.
Council defeated the plan last year
A similar plan was first proposed by Couns. Fabio Costante and Kieran McKenzie, both of whom sit on Transit Windsor's board of directors, during last year's budget process.
While Couns. Angelo Marignani and Gary Kaschak supported the plan, the other councillors opposed the motion and it was defeated in a 6 to 4 vote.
But because the idea is included in Mayor Dilkens' proposed budget, stopping the elimination of these buses will require an amendment proposed by a member of council.
Dilkens can veto that amendment, using the strong mayor powers that city council gave to him as part of a previous pledge to meet provincial priorities.
Council can beat that veto if two thirds of council vote to override it.
That would require eight people on council (which includes the mayor) voting to override the veto.
LISTEN: City councillor explains why cutting "school extra" transit buses makes sense to him
McKenzie said this is a moment for people to figure out who exactly should be paying for student transportation: the city, the school board or a combination of both.
"Who is responsible to fund the service to get students to and from school?" asked McKenzie in an interview with CBC's Windsor Morning last week.
"I'm not sure that it should be entirely the municipality."
Houston and Byrne said that students do pay for a pass to use the service and the city does not incur 100 per cent of the cost, though it is municipally subsidized.
Staff with the school board met with city administration on Thursday, Jan. 16, a week after the budget was first proposed and halfway through the period council has to approve the budget.
Houston and Byrne say they're worried that this proposed plan would increase traffic around the schools during pick-up and drop-off time, posing safety risks.
They also believe it will add stress to a Transit Windsor system that already operates at or beyond capacity most of the time on their primary and secondary routes.
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With files from Windsor Morning