The heavy snow that fell on the region early last week not only slowed down traffic on area roads, but also kept Pembina Hills school buses parked on Monday and Tuesday.
“It was a tough call,” said Wendy Scinski, the division’s assistant Supt. of facilities and transportation, with regards to cancelling bus service on Dec. 2 and 3.
Ultimately, Scinski said the determining factor in keeping the buses parked was the fact there was a lot of snow on the roads, there was a lot of wind blowing the snow, and the weather forecast was saying the snow wasn’t due to stop any time soon.
In addition, she said the division’s contacts all over the region, which stretches from east of Clyde northwest to Swan Hills, were reporting roads in their areas were not in great shape.
The cancellation order went out shortly before 6 a.m. on Monday morning, Scinski said, and followed the division’s regular procedure for informing staff, parents and students that buses would not be running.
She explained that process involves the transportation supervisor calling a select list of drivers, who then call the other drivers, informing them of the decision not to run. Next is informing the students and their parents.
“It’s up to the drivers to notify the parents of the students on their buses,” Scinski said.
Notification that buses are not running is also posted prominently on the division’s website.
The division head office also notifies the schools that there will be fewer students attending that day; schools remain open even when the buses don’t run.
Scinski said schools stay open as a safety precaution, as many students either walk to school or are dropped off by their parents, and therefore are not affected by the buses being cancelled.
When the buses were cancelled on Tuesday, that decision was made on Monday evening, leaving more time for parents to prepare. However, the procedure remains the same no matter when the decision is made, Scinski said.
Having the division’s buses not run due to heavy snow or extreme cold is not a common occurrence, but it’s also not unheard of either, Scinski said.
In a typical year, only two or three times will the buses not run, she said. In order to compensate for the days when the buses are unable to transport their passengers to school, the division schedules more instruction hours than are legally required. That way there is still enough time for students to learn if they lose a few days due to the weather.
Having schools themselves shut down is a rarer event, Scinski said, having only happened once last school year.
In that event, she said area highways were being closed, and it simply wasn’t safe to transport students to and from school, nor to ask teachers and other staff to make the commute.
