August 27, 2024
Dear Families,
The RCJTC has been working over the past number of months to secure school bus service by any means available within the budget allotted to student transportation. This budget allotment, and the offers we have made to the school bus companies, reflects a 12% funding increase that the RCDSB and RCCDSB advocated for and secured from the Ministry of Education for the 2024-2025 school year.
Unfortunately, the school bus companies have maintained that this 12% increase is not enough, and there are no additional funds the school boards can offer without pulling dollars from classrooms and student programming.
There has been no movement from any of the school bus service companies that would lead to agreements on new contract extensions and alternative options will not be in place fast enough to see buses on the roads from other service providers.
This means a disruption to school bus service is likely at the start of the school year.
Students and families are highly encouraged to explore what alternatives they have available to get students safely to school in the event that school buses are not running.
We understand how stressful this situation is for families and the RCJTC continues to explore all options to see school bus service in place for students. We have issued a Request For Supplier Qualifications (RFSQ) in hopes of securing transportation services from other companies.
We also want to assure families that despite comments they may see about school bus service companies wanting access to our route planning systems, for privacy reasons, RCJTC will not share the personal information of our students and families with any company that does not have a contract in place with RCJTC.
More information on the situation can be found here www.onthebus.ca/updates We will continue to provide updates directly to the community when there is more information to share.
Sincerely,
Justin Jeffrey | General Manager
Renfrew County Joint Transportation Consortium
