General Information

Busing Applications

Students who ride on Division school buses require a bus pass, and must apply for busing each year. This includes:

• Eligible (students attending their designated school who reside 1 km or more away (K – Gr. 6), or 2 km or more away (Gr. 7-12)); 
• Ineligible (students attending their designated school who reside 1 km or less away (K – Gr.6), or 2 km or less away (Gr. 7-12)), and 
• School of Choice students (those attending a school other than their designated school, when available).

For more information please review busing applications, payment and fees.

Bus Passes

Bus passes are specific to each student and will have their name and school on the pass. Bus passes are required and each time the student enters or exits the school bus they will tap the pass on the reader pad. If the pass has been misplaced, replacement passes can be purchased online by logging in to your parent PowerSchool Parent portal under the “Student Fees and Forms”.

Rural Bus Service & Pick Up

The Black Gold School Division provides rural bus service to rural schools within the appropriate attendance area. Pick ups will be at the laneway wherever possible, however, in subdivisions, there will be designated pick up points established rather than stopping every few hundred yards.

It should be noted that many of the schools start between 8:20 a.m. and 8:45 a.m., which requires rural buses to pick up students earlier at the beginning of their routes.

Regardless of stop times, buses will pick up students whose residence is on a Highway on the right-hand side only.

Urban Area Bus Service & Pick Up

Transportation is not a door-to-door service but stops are set and students are required to be at the stop 5 minutes ahead of the stop time. Many urban area students walk three to five blocks to get to their stop.

Bus Routes & Ride Time

Bus routes are designed by looking at the student enrolments, the distances and times and as well as safety. It is not possible to have every student on last in the morning and off first after school, especially if the route is linear instead of circular. It is not considered practical to drive past a number of students homes in order to drop off students at the far end first. Although it may only take parents ten to twenty minutes to take students to schools, buses must pick up many students and may have numerous stops and/or turnarounds, which adds to the times on the routes.

Students are to be ready and waiting for the bus at their pick up point five minutes prior to the scheduled pick up time. Drivers cannot wait for students, as this would add extra time to the routes, especially if a number of students are not ready for their pick up. In addition, students who run after a bus because they are late could slip and fall under the moving bus.

ECS (Kindergarten) Transportation

It should be noted if the ECS (Kindergarten) program is a half-day program, there is no busing available for noon hour, at the end of the morning program or at the beginning of the afternoon program.

Transfer

In Leduc we operate a transfer station on the west side of École Leduc Junior High School both morning and afternoon, the site is fully supervised and all students are transferred prior to buses departing the site.

The transfer point has been established in these areas. It would not be practical to have all the buses going to all of the schools as this would add a considerable amount of time to the routes and in addition, most schools do not have enough space to accommodate all of the buses.

Transportation refunds/ Fees for new or moved students

The Black Gold School Division does not provide a ‘winter-only’ bus service; students must register for year-round bus service by June 30.

Transportation fees will not be refunded after the first day of school unless:

• The student leaves the Division prior to the end of the school year. In this case the fee will be prorated based on the number of months the student was registered for transportation.
• The student moves from an Ineligible rider to an Eligible rider. In this case the fee will be prorated based on the number of months the student was registered for transportation. Students registering for transportation after the start of the school year will only have fees prorated if the student is new to the Division. Otherwise, transportation fees will only be prorated in special circumstances at the discretion of the Transportation Manager.

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For more information, please contact:

Diane Miles
Transportation Manager
Phone: 780.955.6034
Email: diane.miles@blackgold.ca

Lindsay Beveridge
Transportation Assistant
(780) 955-6048
lindsay.beveridge@blackgold.ca

Lilli Packard
Transportation Technician
(780) 955-6053
lilli.packard@blackgold.ca