Is there a bus on the road?

BY NANCY KELLY

Kings County Register

The Annapolis Valley Regional School Board’s (AVRSB) practice of allowing school bus drivers the discretion to choose which roads they will travel in inclement weather has raised the ire of at least two Kings County home and school groups.

Organizations from Central Kings and West Kings high schools wrote to board superintendent Dr. Norman Dray to complain, January 29 and 31, the AVRSB kept schools open but announced bus drivers would have the discretion not to travel roads they considered unsafe or impassable. A similar announcement was also made February 12 and again February 18.

Sherry Sheppard, president of Central Kings’ School Advisory Council, said the decision amounts to discrimination: students living in rural areas could “get the short end of the stick” should bus drivers decide not to travel on certain roads.

For West Kings PTSA president Vanda Dow, the issue was also about getting students to school during what was exam week.

“What if there had been a provincial exam scheduled for one of those days and some kids had missed their exam because of a lack of bus transportation?” wondered Dow.

Current Department of Education guidelines are limited when it comes to reasons for missing provincial exams. A lack of transportation is not an acceptable excuse.

Dray has responded to the concerns of the two groups, and says leaving the issue to the discretion of bus drivers is not a new policy.

“Bus drivers were making the call (about which roads to travel on) already - we just decided to formalize it and start announcing it,” explained Dray. Announcements about bus travel are now broadcast on the radio, as are school closure notices.

“We get the information on the radio by 6 a.m., allowing families enough time to make alternate arrangements for transporting children to school” if they are affected by a cancellation of bus service, says Dray.

Iif one student in the board had missed an exam, provincial or otherwise, because of the board policy, he says he would have gone to bat for that student. January 29, only six students in the board - all of whom reside on roads in the Gaspereau area - did not get to school because of a lack of bus transportation.

“Six out of close to 15,000 students represents less than one per cent of the board’s student population,” points out Dray. He contends closing all schools because so few students could be affected by cancellation of a bus route makes little sense.

“As we feel it would be discriminatory to shut down the whole system for a very few students, we have no plans to change the direction of our policy.”

Dray says people make a choice about where they live and have to deal with consequences of that decision.

“Every now and then, a handful of roads are bad enough we think it prudent to allow bus drivers - who are the experts out there - to make the final decision about the roads they can travel on safely,” adds Dray.

“Unfortunately, in some weather conditions, not all the plowing and salting in the world can make a particular road safe or passable for our buses and our students.”