Last year at this time, seven school buses served the Wilfried-Bastien school in Saint-Léonard and its 825 students. This year, there are four.
The reason for such a restriction? A recurring deficit ($1,600,000 for the 2022-2023 fiscal year alone) that forced the Pointe-de-l’Île School Services Centre (CSSPI) to remove a total of nine vehicles from its territory compared to last year. And to review its eligibility criteria for school transportation.
Throughout the CSSPI, priority was therefore given to the youngest. On the other hand, pupils in the second and third cycles of primary school (3e at 6e year) who live within 1.6 km of the school are now asked to come by their own means. Last year, this limit was 1.2 km.
This new rule is causing confusion among many parents who feel they have been wronged, both by the method of calculation and by the changes it implies in their daily lives.
“The first one has the right. The other one doesn’t!”
Mourir Foul is the father of two children who attend Wilfried Bastien school in St-Léonard and who benefited from school transportation until last year. He struggles to understand the decision of the school service center.
“I have a child in first grade, another in sixth gradee year. The first one, he has the right [au transport scolaire]. The other one, no! It’s a big problem for us!” he explains in an interview with Duty.
Since the start of the school year, Mr. Foul has been forced to wait for the bus with the youngest, then accompany his eldest daughter by bike. But he knows that this situation cannot last, especially because winter will eventually arrive.
“What am I going to do? I don’t have a car. This is an unacceptable decision with the weather conditions we have here. It’s unfair, inhuman!” he despairs.
Four children in three different schools
“At first, we thought it was just our children’s school. But the situation is the same throughout the school board,” says Hassan (fictitious name), a father who initiated a class action against the CSSPI. He prefers to remain anonymous for reasons related to his professional situation.
With four children at home, attending three different schools, he says he no longer knows how to organize himself while he is back in school and working at the same time.
According to him, there are more than a hundred families affected throughout the Pointe-de-l’Île School Service Center in Montreal.
If there is a question of organizational headache for parents, those with whom we spoke The Duty say that the CSSPI’s decision also poses safety challenges for children, both on the way to and around the school.
This also means additional financial difficulty for some families who are already not rolling in money.
“I feel trapped”
“Until last year, our two children took the bus. Everything was well organized for us,” explains Sarah, a mother who works at the same time as returning to school, like her partner.
The mother feels caught off guard today. She doesn’t want her 9-year-old daughter to walk the 16-minute journey to school alone. So she accompanies her.
“I don’t have money for daycare. This week, I didn’t go to work. I feel trapped,” she confides, dejected.
“And then, I can’t move, the prices are crazy in Montreal. I chose my accommodation because I knew I would be able to benefit from school transportation.”
The CSSPI assures to have consulted
According to Valérie Biron, director of communications for the CSSPI, all parents affected by the change in transportation policy were informed by personalized email last January.
They were also asked to complete an application for places which will be gradually offered from 1er October. To date, the CSSPI claims to have received more than 612 such requests.
Finally, Mme Biron also emphasizes that these changes were decided after a significant consultation exercise with the Parents’ Committee, the unions associated with the school service center and the Secondary School Students’ Association.