Over 450 Central Okanagan students on school bus wait lists

Photo: Castanet/file

Students who waited until August or September to apply for a seat on a school bus within the Central Okanagan School District are out of luck.

At least for now.

"Reserved seats for late eligible applicants have all been assigned and, as of Sept. 27, there are 461 students remaining on a waitlist for school bus transportation service," a report from transportation manager Gail Prokopchuk states.

"Reserved seats for late eligible applicants was set at 20 per cent for each bus route, however these seats have all been assigned."

According to the report, only 40 eligible students (those outside the prescribed walk limit) have been placed on the waitlist along with 421 potential courtesy riders.

A majority of those on the waitlist are students at Mount Boucherie (166), Canyon Falls Middle School (95) and OKM (88).

"We are confident the eligible students on the waitlist, with the exception of KSS (13 students), will receive a route assignment in the near future as transportation services does receive canceled seat requests, and will assign available seats to eligible students on the waitlist," says Prokopchuk.

"We anticipate all elementary school students on the waitlist as courtesy riders (four) will also be assigned a seat.

"We do not expect to assign many, if any seats for courtesy riders for middle or secondary students."

The report shows the district runs 70 bus routes with 4,307 assigned seats.

Of those, 3,608 are filled by eligible riders, 563 by courtesy riders, 100 special education students on 10 special education routes and 36 special needs students on regular routes.

There are also 255 international students as part of the assigned number.