Parents in the Flatbush-Chisholm area and at least one councillor with the MD of Lesser Slave River are upset that the Pembina Hills school division is unable to provide regular bus service to Pembina North Community School.
On Feb. 10, the school division’s transportation department sent out a letter to the Flatbush and Chisholm area parents whose children are transported to Pembina North Community School via Bus No. 69.
The letter says that “due to recent unforeseen circumstances, your regular bus driver will be unable to drive for the time being,” adding that the division is making every effort to book spare drivers.
However, the letter warns that given the provincial shortage of bus drivers, there is a possibility that the bus service may be periodically interrupted.
MD of Lesser Slave River Coun. Robert Esau, who has spoken to affected parents about the issue, said the bus in question makes about 10 stops in the Flatbush area.
Esau said parents have had to either drive their kids to Pembina North themselves or truck them to an alternate pick-up site.
There have been evening runs on a few days but parents were not notified until they were actually occurring, said Esau.
Esau, who opposed the closure of W.R. Frose School in Fawcett and Jarvie School, said Pembina Hills is obligated to educate students and that entails transporting them to school.
“I don’t care what they use for an excuse. An excuse isn’t good enough. If you have a problem, fix it,” he said, noting that Pembina Hills receives taxpayer dollars in order to run their buses.
Esau also questioned Pembina Hills’ maintained claim that students in the Flatbush-Chisholm area would not be on the bus longer than an hour.
“It is physically impossible to drive from Chisholm to Dapp in an hour,” he said, noting that the bus driver also has to spend several minutes on each stop.
“They said they could do it, so I’m trying to hold their feet to the fire.”
When contacted on Friday, Pembina Hills board chair Kim Webster said she hadn’t heard the latest news on this issue, but the transportation department have been working on it diligently.
Webster said she had received calls from Esau, while the transportation department and fellow trustee Jackie Comeau had spoken to parents in the area.
Webster indicated that the trustees and the transportation department are all concerned about the lack of a bus driver for that route.
“The board would agree that if children can’t get to school, public education is no longer accessible for those children and that’s not how it should work in Alberta,” she said.
Webster said they have been advertising for a spare driver and if anyone would like to take the job, they can contact the transportation department.
And while they anticipate this issue will be temporary, Webster said the bottom line is that those children weren’t being bussed to school as they should be.
“If any family can’t get to school, then it’s something we need to take care of,” she added.
