As temperatures plummeted to below -40 C from Feb. 3-8, school bus services were cancelled in several jurisdictions, albeit not consistently.
While all bus routes in Aspen View Public Schools and Sturgeon Public Schools Division were cancelled Feb. 4-5, Pembina Hills Public Schools cancelled 21 routes and 66 routes respectively as the mercury bottomed out at -44.7 C. On Feb. 6, when temperatures dipped to -38.7 C, PHPS cancelled 36 routes, SPSD cancelled 70 and AVPS shut down all their bus routes.
Schools were still open on those days and parents were given the option of taking their children to school or not. Because both SPSD and PHPS had teachers conventions Feb. 7-8, there was no bus service, but AVPS shut down 10 buses on Feb. 7 and none on Feb. 8.
PHPS assistant superintendent Brett Cooper said the division normally leaves the call to close a bus route up to the individual drivers because of the sheer size of the region, adding bus drivers know their routes and vehicles better than upper management.
“Historically PHPS had utilized various staff members to engage in travelling around the district anywhere from 4 a.m. onward to make a determination if the roads were safe enough for travel. This was an inefficient use of staff resources,” he said. “Since they travel the same route daily, they are the experts for their particular route. They understand the importance of making the decision not to run and have the added responsibility of communicating with parents about any disruptions to the service for students.
“PHPS does not have a set temperature that we use as a guide to cancel bus routes. Again, it is very challenging to nail down a precise temperature when we have so many communities to serve and temperatures can vary so much.”
Spokespeople for both SPSD and AVPS said that they also give individual bus drivers authority over whether they cancel routes for similar reasons, but said they use -40 C as the hard cut-off for service across the division.
Cooper noted PHPS has the authority to shut down service across the division if road conditions are deemed unsafe for travel.
The inconsistency of how bus routes are cancelled has lead to some concern among parents. Both Cooper and PHPS transportation director Shantelle Haitel said they each had received an email from a concerned parent. Anyone with concerns is advised to speak to either Haitel or Cooper for clarification.
PHPS board chair Jennifer Tuininga said she had not received any complaints from parents about how the division handles its bus routes but noted frustration with freezing temperatures was not uncommon.
“Whenever there’s cold weather, there’s always a bit of chatter about what might be better or worse for a bus and what to do about transportation,” she said. “The transportation policy is an administrative procedure, so they are the ones to speak on that.”
