The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Frontier School Division has decided it doesn't make sense to bus students within its catchment area to a neighbouring division in Flin Flon. Just over 70 students in Big Island, Schist Lake and Bakers Narrows live within the Frontier boundary but for years have been bused to Flin Flon at Frontier's expense. Frontier has announced that beginning next September, it will only bus students from the cottage subdivisions if they attend either of the Frontier schools in Cranberry Portage. In order for those students to continue attending class in Flin Flon, they will have to make an application in accordance with the province's Schools of Choice legislation. Flin Flon School Board Trustee Jim Wilson said there are no plans to continue the busing service. Instead, the board would look to claim an applicable provincial grant for every cottage student and then pass that money onto the parents to help defray their transportation costs, he said. Gordon Shead, chief superintendent of Frontier, said the Flin Flon busing program was running at an annual deficit of roughly $30,000 per year. "We couldn't continue with a deficit because these students were going outside of our school division," said Shead, adding that the practice was "hard to defend publicly within Frontier School Division." Shead said the province wasn't willing to provide additional funding to make up the shortfall, so Frontier officials felt they had no choice but to discontinue the service. Frontier, which serves 38 Manitoba communities, recently sent a letter announcing the decision to the Flin Flon School Division. "We're giving people lots of notice for planning purposes," said Shead. "We would never want to spring this on somebody with short notice." Shead said Frontier is merely following provincial policy, which does not require divisions to bus students outside their boundaries. Frontier has been reviewing its busing programs for the past few years, he said, and has discontinued similar busing programs in a handful of other communities.
