In addition to submissions made at the meetings, 944 people completed and returned the Response Form contained on the final page of the consultation document. This form consisted of nine statements pertaining to school viability, school busing and designation of schools and an open-ended "Additional Comments" section. Some of the key findings were as follows:
The most significant finding was the widespread support (76.7%) shown by the public for Government s proposal for "not busing students further than the school nearest their home" (i.e., neighbourhood schools).
71.9% of respondents agreed that "it is inappropriate to provide additional resources to maintain a school when a better learning opportunity for students is available nearby".
70.9% supported "busing high school students longer distances to a school that is able to offer a wider range of program options".
Strong support (65.5%) was also shown for the maintenance and/or development of multigrading in small schools to avoid busing primary (K-3) students long distances.
The public disagreed with increasing the minimum distance for school bus eligibility beyond the current 1.6 kilometres for all students (61.7%).