Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (June 05/02) - Rankin Inlet's District Education Authority is rolling the dice and hoping for the best.

The DEA has put out a public tender to provide bus services to the hamlet's three schools for the coming year.

The problem is, the DEA needs about three times the $45,000 it received from the Department of Education to bus children this past year.

Kivalliq DEAs won't receive new budgets until the end of this month.

To date, busing has only been provided for about one-sixth of Rankin's students.

More than 64 children are slated to join the local education system this coming year, with far fewer leaving through graduation or relocation.

Vice-chair Ron Roach says the DEA wants a three-year contract to provide busing services.

"Depending upon who gets the contract, they may be able to access other areas of funding, such as going through Kivalliq Partners in Development and applying for a business-development fund," says Roach.

"Kivalliq Partners did contribute some business-development funds towards the purchase of the current bus to get it up and running."

Roach says the lack of busing in Rankin has reached the critical stage.

He says the Department of Education's 2001-02 capital plan includes $125,000 for buses for Panniqtuuq and Cape Dorset.

"That begs the question how come some communities can have a bus purchased and others cannot?"

Roach says the absence of buses in Rankin is gambling with the health of a large number of students.

"Everyone knows how cold it gets in Rankin during the winter months and we shouldn't be expecting young kids to walk to school all the way from Area 6."

The hamlet needs at least a 52-seat bus to handle the student population.

Roach says the Rankin DEA is also checking into how school busing services are funded in Iqaluit.

"We're not playing hardball with the Department of Education.

"The tender is simply to ascertain what our actual costs will be to service the whole community," he says.

"Regardless of what community you're talking about, you have to apply the funding fairly and equitably to everyone."