Pembina Hills Public Schools staff weathered a little heat last week in the form of online complaints and phone calls from parents after buses continued to run in the school division despite the freezing temperatures causing bus service to be cancelled in neighbouring divisions Jan. 12.
However, Supt. David Garbutt pointed out that the decision whether or not to put a child on a schoolbus rests with parents.
“If we shut (the buses) down, then you don’t get a choice,” he said.
Jan. 11-12, temperatures across Alberta fell to below -40C before finally warming up on the weekend. This prompted nearby school divisions like Aspen View Public Schools and the Northern Lights School Division to cancel bus service on Jan. 12.
In both cases, schools remained open for any students who made it in and provincial diploma exams went ahead as scheduled.
In Pembina Hills, a total of 17 bus routes were cancelled, including seven bus routes serving Pembina North Community School in Dapp, five routes serving Barrhead Composite High School, two routes serving Neerlandia Public Christian School, two serving Eleanor Hall School in Clyde and one serving Busby School.
Pembina North, Neerlandia, Eleanor Hall and Busby all happened to have the day off due to following an alternate calendar, a fact that was pointed out by some angry parents.
However, Garbutt pointed out that not all the students who live on the cancelled bus routes go to those schools. Some of them are transported to Barrhead or Westlock to attend the high schools there, he indicated.
“Those high schools are not on alternate calendars,” said Garbutt. “There’s some misunderstanding and some miscommunication there.
So why didn’t Pembina Hills follow the example of other divisions? Garbutt noted that on both days, the temperature varied across the division “quite a bit,” with Dapp reporting below -40 C temperatures and Busby reporting lows closer to -30C .
If there was an Administrative Procedure (AP) requiring the cancellation at a certain temperature, Garbutt wondered if that would mean shutting buses down in some areas and not others.
More importantly, Garbutt said it is their preference to let parents decide whether or not it’s safe to let their kids ride the bus. No parent is forced to put their child on the bus, he stressed.
Bus drivers offer an additional level of security, as they are tasked with deciding the weather makes driving a route unsafe.
“They know their buses best. They know their routes best. They know how the temperatures will affect them driving on their routes,” he said.
Garbutt said he had heard from some parents that bus drivers felt pressured to drive despite the cold weather, especially if their buses started that morning. He stressed that is not true, adding that if bus drivers felt it was unsafe to travel that day, the division would honour their decision.
If Pembina Hills over-ruled the drivers, he noted, then they would be held accountable if some disaster actually did occur.
Garbutt said some parents were concerned over buses breaking down while en route to school. However, they could always send another bus out to transport children stranded out on the road.
“We have other buses. Not all of our buses are out on the road,” he said, noting they are in communication with all of their buses.
The one time the division may make a decision to universally cancel buses is if there was a major visibility issue due to a snowstorm or a similar weather occurrence, said Garbutt.
“I will let people know in advance: we will err on the side of caution (if there is zero visibility),” he said.
However, the last time Pembina Hills shut down all of its buses was in 2013, and it turned out to be a poor decision. While the weather was extremely poor one day, but it turned out to be sunny and warm the following morning, he said.
Garbutt acknowledged that some parents may fear their children being “left behind” if they miss a day of school and the buses still ran.
However, Pembina Hills expects its staff to be understanding, he said. While teachers will press on if a few students are absent, they don’t proceed as normal if half of their class doesn’t show up due to bad weather.
“Our teachers are reasonable enough to realize, ‘I don’t want to leave half of the kids behind,’” he said.
Teachers with a large number of absent students will use the opportunity to work in smaller groups or work one-on-one with certain students, he indicated.
“I would hope our public would realize that we are going to be reasonable and we are aware of those kinds of circumstances.”
Garbutt pointed out that in the high schools, students were taking diploma exams. If they couldn’t make those exams due to bus route cancellations, they will have to make them up in April, potentially having to drive into Edmonton to write a make-up exam.
He also pointed out that, if the buses don’t run, they also receive complaints from parents with entirely different concerns, ranging from the lack of daycare to needing to head into work that day.
“It’s a tough one. It’s one of those things where you’re not going to please everybody,” he said.
Ultimately, if parents have further questions they want answered, Garbutt said they should contact himself or the director of transportation.
They can also contact him to make the case for creating an AP that says buses should be shut down if the temperature falls too low, he noted.
