The city is going to move ahead with a plan to do away with a Transit Windsor service known as 'school extras' that helps bus students in Windsor to school.
Ward 1 Councillor Fred Francis sought to amend the proposed 2025 budget during Monday's meeting to maintain the status quo to give city administration and the local school board time to find a permanent long-term solution; however, the council voted 7-4 against the motion, meaning the budget proposal will move forward.
The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board and the Greater Essex County District School Board asked the council to defer the issue to find a solution that better meets the needs of students.
Emelda Byrne, Director of the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, says from a consultation perspective, they were not consulted.
"It would have been nice to have further dialogue and consultation, working with the city administration to see what we could do to think of what's best for our students and families, who are Windsor citizens that are riding buses every day: 14, 15, 16, and 17-year-olds," she says.
The extra buses provide service to students at Vincent Massey and Riverside Secondary Schools and Holy Names and St. Joseph's Catholic High Schools.
The extras were designed to take pressure off regular routes during the school year, but a budget report called it a "concierge-level of service for a small number of secondary school students."
Vicki Houston, Director of the Greater Essex County District School Board, says she's sure some parents and students aren't even aware of what's happening and won't realize the impact until the first day of school.
"When there isn't a bus available to pick their child up, or their child is waiting at the regular transit bus routes and the bus is going by them, and they're late for school, or they're arriving home after school, or not getting to their part-time job or extracurriculars that they're participating in in the community," she says.
The change will take effect in September 2025.
Houston says the school board has a transportation deficit, like almost every school board across the province, in terms of the funding model, so providing transportation is an issue.
"It's not just the budget; it's the equipment; it's the drivers. We don't have extra buses. Not extra in terms of the terms, but in terms of the actual equipment, we don't have that. Nor do we have enough bus drivers, so that in itself is an impact outside of the financial piece of the budget," she says.
The budget will eliminate the service and rassign the nine buses used for the school extras to provide necessary service improvements and expansion along other routes, including the Dougall 6, South Windsor 7, Walkersville 8, Parent 14, and Route 115.
A letter from the school boards had raised concerns that eliminating the service would create additional vehicular traffic in areas already severely congested at schools such as Holy Names and Massey, and that without reliable transit, many students will face barriers that impact their attendance, performance, and overall opportunities.
The school boards estimate around 650 students rely on the buses every school day.
