Busing erupts into hot topic at board meeting

More than a dozen people from Atikokan to Rainy River confronted public school board trustees at last night’s committee of the whole meeting here to push for an independent travel study before making changes to the busing system.
At their regular board meeting in June, trustees adopted the policies of the former Fort Frances-Rainy River board, including its busing policies, and said they would review them later in the year.
But Rob Richat, a member of the former Atikokan Board of Education, asked trustees to leave busing issues and numbers the same as the last school year instead of implementing the Fort Frances-Rainy River board’s policy right away.
Richat noted the province was reviewing its transportation grant policy, and for the time being has left the funding level for the 1998-99 school year the same as the 1997-98 one.
“It would be a very practical time to take a breather while this study is being done,” he argued.
Richat also said the Atikokan school busing system always has come in under the grant ceiling and was very efficient.
John Eluik, owner and operator of Quetico Bus Lines, is hoping the board listened to Richat. He said major changes have been proposed to school busing in Atikokan with amalgamation, including a reduction of about 33 percent of its current transportation budget.
Eluik said less money means less service, and less service could mean fewer kids who are eligible for school busing.
“I don’t now what they’re totally going to look at in there,” Eluik said after the committee of the whole went behind closed doors last night.
“They want me to go [under] their formula,” he said. “We’ve been talking to the bus contractors [here]. A lot of them feel they could not afford to operate.”
Norbert Bragg, who has been driving school buses for 28 years, is one of the contractors who feels that way. And when trustee Dean McLean asked some of the local bus drivers at the meeting what they felt about the board’s system, he was quick to note they were the lowest-paid contractors in Ontario.
“My bus is for sale,” Bragg said after the meeting. “I’ve got one left and I’d like to get rid of it.”
Bus contractors also seemed to have bitter feelings over the board owning its own fleet, citing Education and Training minister Dave Johnson’s quote that school boards should not be in the business of transportation.
Sonja Gotziaman, Eluik’s daughter, had one comment for trustees.
“We hope you keep transportation [in Atikokan] the same,” she said. “You may benefit from the Atikokan system of contractors.”
Board vice-chair July Eluik, who is the wife of John Eluik, declared a conflict of interest on the issue and did not take part in the discussion.