The public school board is compensating families whose bus routes are being cancelled because of the driver shortage.
Along with launching a pilot program offering some families gas cards, District School Board Ontario North East (DSB1) has also sent a letter to the Ministry of Education about some of the challenges in recruiting new bus drivers.
The pilot program launched in December and offers gas cards to help families cover the cost of getting their children to school when a bus route is cancelled for at least five consecutive days because of driver shortages.
There are currently 209 routes across all bus operators in the system, and 188 of them have full-time drivers.
“This is a great program to try to bridge the gap for families,” said trustee Crystal Hewey.
At Tuesday's meeting, superintendent Lisa Edwards presented the pilot program to the DSB1 trustees.
Details for the program were sent to families on Jan. 10.
People travelling up to 10 kilometres one way to drop their children off can receive a $10 gas card per week. For 11 to 30 kilometres, it’s $50 per week; 31-60 kilometres are eligible for $75 per week, and more than 61 kilometres is $100 per week.
Some students on affected and cancelled routes have been moved to other buses.
“Our students are now on the bus for longer, sometimes over an hour, so we do have some families who have refused to wake their children up 20 minutes earlier,” said Edwards. “We understand the impact of students being on buses for a longer period of time. However, as we continue to navigate the situation, that is what it’s going to look like going forward.”
Scheduling drop-offs can also be challenging for parents.
Hewey said that families are having timing issues with the small window when students can be dropped off. She suggested that more supervision be offered earlier in the day for these families and students.
Schools open 15 minutes before classes start.
Director of education Lesleigh Dye said that hiring more staff would be difficult.
“With the severe shortage of staff, I’m not sure we will be able to find monitors to add in addition to the staff complement we already have,” said Dye. “We are barely able to hire for the positions that we have.”
Bringing in principals was brought up as an option, but again, Dye said that was not feasible.
“They are already working extreme hours and covering classes, and to add the responsibility to supervise students beyond their hours, I am not making that commitment for all schools,” said Dye. “There are things we are working on, but to ask the principals to work hard, I’m not going to ask them to extend their day.”
The school board is also asking the province to do more.
The board sent a letter to Education Minister Stephen Lecce regarding delays in licensing new drivers.
Driver testing centres are only open for two days a week to license bus drivers, and medical clearance from the Ministry of Transportation can take time to process. The letter outlines these issues to the education minister and how the issues affect students’ access to education.
The gas card program is not offered for weather conditions.
An update on the program will be given to the board in April so that the pilot program data is collected and can be applied to future budgetary considerations.
