Trustees with the London District Catholic school board voted Tuesday to endorse ending funding for buses that bring students to three specialty programs at a pair of downtown-area schools.

The move, intended to tame its mounting budget deficit, will affect St. Mary choir and orchestra school on Lyle Street, which runs from Grade 5 to Grade 8, and nearby Catholic Central High.

“We cannot have a deficit,” trustee Gabe Pizzuti, chair of the school board, said in an interview after the budget committee meeting. “If we have a budget that isn’t compliant, that could be catastrophic.”

Under education ministry rules, school boards can’t have budget shortfalls of more than one per cent of their total budget. The board had projected a $3.7-million deficit on its $411-million budget for the 2025

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