Roughly 1,000 students will be impacted by changes to Catholic school transportation

Starting Monday, wearing a mask on school buses in Greater Sudbury will be mandatory. (File)

REGINA -

Regina Catholic Schools has changed the eligibility for transportation for the next school year.

Starting in September the walking boundary for elementary students will change from one kilometre to 1.2 kilometres by roadway.

This means students must live1.2 kilometres away from the school to qualify for transportation.

The Catholic School Board of trustees passed the motion for changes on Monday night.

Regina Catholic Schools said this was a budget motivated change and this will save the division about $1,000,000 per year.

“We are in a position where when it comes to the budget things are tight and we don’t have anything that is comfortable that we can cut,” Twylla West, communications and media coordinator with Regina Catholic Schools, said. “So we are dealing with some difficult decisions and this is one of them.”

The eligibility change will affect about 1,000 students, who will be contacted about the changes.

“We have staff and we have stuff. We never want to cut the staff. We don’t want to have to look at classrooms and the things that are impacting at the front line, but we certainly are out of things that we can cut that aren’t going to be felt at some level,” West said.

West added that this change puts the division in line with Regina Public Schools and many other school divisions in the province.