Starting next school year, thousands of CBE parents may experience “rise-and-whine” mornings, with bell time changes coming to account for full, expanded bus routes.

When changes are made to school bus transportation, bell times are impacted, according to the CBE website. 

“Aligning bell times across schools makes transportation more efficient, allowing each bus to run multiple routes. This creates a reliable transportation system, allowing students to get to school safely, on time and ready to learn,” the website says. 

“Bell time adjustments were needed to help balance the school day.” 

Factors like student well-being and feeder schools within an attendance area were considered when making the changes, according to the website.

Generally, elementary schools will not start before 8 a.m. and will not end after 4 p.m., the website says.

“The goal is for buses to begin no earlier than 7 AM though some specialized programs may require an earlier start,” it reads.

Although typically prioritized, parent consultation “was not possible” for the bell times swap. Information for each school is available on the CBE website. 

A dream for most kids, but another change in instructional time is not what most parents wished for.

Lara Semler said that news of the CBE bell times change was shared with her in a WhatsApp group. 

Semler did some independent research and was still confused about the change. 

“How are they going to make up this instructional time? Because for our school, it’s another 10 minutes that they’re losing off the day,” she said. 

For Semler, the idea of altering school day time rings-a-bell, as her daughter’s school has moved to early-dismissal Fridays. She said the school “keeps losing instructional time.” 

Unable to attend her local parent council meeting herself, Semler asked a friend for details of the meeting. 

“The school had said that the times would be made up by reducing lunch and recess times, that just seemed really unfortunate to me,” Semler said. 

“As important as instructional time is, I think that in a busy school day for young elementary school children, their break times are just as important. “ 

Semler said that for her daughter in second grade, break time is critical for successful learning. 

In a statement, the CBE said that school principals work with their education director to finalize instructional hours and school organization.  

“They work within the bell times to develop a timetable that accounts for the hours of instruction required, suitable breaks for lunch and recess, and any other non-instructional times during school,” the statement said.  

The priority is to ensure students’ well-being and opportunities for physical activity and peer connection are supported, while meeting provincial requirements for instructional hours during the school day, according to the statement. 

Annually, students require approximately 950 hours of instruction for elementary though junior high school students, and 1,000 hours for high school students, as per Alberta Education. 

Bell time swap adds to confusing transportation system 

One parent, who asked not to be named, said that earlier bell times add stress to her already full morning. 

“It just squeezes our days and adds more chaos to our morning,” she said. 

Laura Shutiak, founder and executive director of Calgary-based not-for-profit, Youth on Route, said that with fewer Junior High and High School’s using yellow school buses, more students are left to find transportation elsewhere.  

“The provincial government is supposed to pay for transportation to school. It’s one of the things in the Education Act,” she said 

“If you’re a kid under 12, the transit’s free, that’s great. That helps families. It helps families get places.” 

Shutiak said that many students rely on public transit as their main transportation to school, however, some families cannot afford a monthly transit pass. Currently, a youth transit pass is $84 a month. The cost will increase to $86 in September.  

CCSD Students can apply for a monthly rebate of $20 to help with transit pass costs, CBE offers no student rebate.

Shutiak said that families can apply for low-income transit passes. If an individual student wants to apply, they need to speak directly with their school’s principal. 

“Well, no kids gonna go do that, right,” Shutiak said. 

When asked, 45 per cent of students said they’d like to use public transit more but cannot afford the cost, according to Shutiak. 

Shutiak mentioned that students at post-secondary schools like SAIT and the University of Calgary receive a Transit UPass with their tuition costs. 

“They do that for university students, but not for high school kids,” she said. 

A lack of transportation options can correlate directly to student attendance, according to Shutiak.

“You think kids are just not showing up for school. But have you considered that they don’t have a way to get to school that they can afford because the Calgary public board doesn’t provide any subsidy whatsoever,” she said.