Those students who live more than 2.4 kilometres from home and attend a school in the Chinooks Edge Division will have to start paying for busing fees next year.

This announcement came after the Chinooks Edge School Divison board found they were $1.2 million short for their transportation budget, which is normally covered by government grants.

Superintendent for Chinooks Edge Kurt Sacher said they were not going to take money from the classroom or increase ride times to make up the deficit, so they had not choice but to increase the fees.

“Unfortunately, they (the school board) were left with no other option but to start a fee for all of our rural students who ride the bus, $200 a year or $20 a month, and for those who live in town who are already paying $312 a year, their fees have been increased to $500 a year, or $50 a month.”

Sacher said this is the highest transportation deficit they've ever seen.

“We had already been asking our town folks to pay a fee, but we now need to start asking our rural folks to contribute so that we do not have a deficit, and so that we can avoid taking money from the classroom to resolve the deficit; we’re just not prepared to do that.”

The UCP government here in Alberta loosened some rural busing rules for schools division last year, reversing a decision made by the former NDP government which required school boards to transport students to and from school for free, or provide reduced costs if their designated school is more than 2.4 kilometres from their home.

For more information on the changes to the transportation fees, you can click here to go to the Chinooks Edge School Division's website.