Rocky View Schools Briefs: From the March 7 meeting

Nearly 9,400 students are transported on a school bus in the Rocky View Schools (RVS) district, according to a report for trustees, March 7.

Fifteen per cent of those students, 1,496, live within 2.5 kilometres of their school, making them ineligible for provincial transportation funding. Nine-hundred and thirty-six of those students live in Airdrie, 160 in Chestermere, 298 in Cochrane, seven in Crossfield, 12 in Kathyrn and Beiseker and 83 in Springbank.

Sixty of those students ride the school bus for longer than an hour, the goal RVS has set for the maximum amount of time students should ride the bus each day.

RVS provides transportation to each of its 11 schools in Airdrie, with 3,160 students riding 52 buses. Twenty-six students from Beiseker, Irricana and Crossfield areas enrolled in Airdrie French Immersion ride the bus for longer than an hour.

In Chestermere, 1,470 students take one of 35 buses to each of the five schools in the area. Eight students in the area ride the bus for longer than an hour, including three French Immersion students from Langdon. The other five are rural students with long routes.

Transportation is provided to 2,700 students in the Cochrane area on 60 buses. Eight rural students ride the bus for longer than an hour. Three students attending Westbrook school ride about 62 minutes, while 10 students from the exception boundary ride about 70 minutes to school every day.

In Crossfield, 149 students are transported daily on five school buses. Two students ride longer than an hour.

In the Beiseker/Kathyrn area, 396 students ride 14 school buses. Eight of the students ride longer than an hour, mostly due to the scarcity of population in the area.

Transportation is provided to four Springbank area schools, with 1,522 students riding 40 buses. Three students from the Bragg Creek area ride their bus for about 62 minutes.

According to Darrell Couture, RVS’ associate superintendent of business and operations, the organization regularly looks at the length of time students ride on the bus to try to meet the board’s one-hour maximum goal.

Options approved

RVS board of trustees approved a list of 50 locally-developed and acquired high school courses, March 7.

The optional courses will be offered to students this fall, pending approval from Alberta Education.

Four of the courses, including English 35 AP (advanced placement), French Language 35 AP, Geology 25 and Studio Art 35 AP were created within the division.

The courses approved by the board cover a range of topics, including band, psychology, acting, mathematics, military history, philosophy, sports, yoga and languages.

The majority of the courses were acquired from the Calgary School District, while others were acquired from as far away as Edmonton and St. Albert.

According to Angela Spanier, spokesperson for Rocky View Schools, the board goes the same processs every, whether courses are new to RVS students or not.