Some Halifax-area parents are scrambling to find out if their children will have a seat on a school bus one day before the school year begins.
Changes to bus routes and school dismissal times have limited the number of “courtesy” spots for students who don’t fall under the regular criteria for busing.
Hannah Munday received an email Wednesday afternoon informing her that courtesy busing for her three sons will no longer continue.
Her two youngest, aged five and nine, attend Prospect Road Elementary — about 1.7 kilometres from their home.
“The school is right on Highway 333. There is no way to get to it without crossing the highway after walking along it for the whole distance,” she said.
“It’s ridiculous. There’s no way that’s safe for little kids or even big kids.”
MORE INFORMATION: HRSB Student Tranportation Policy
In general, students in Grades primary to 6 receive busing if they live more than 2.4 kilometres from their school. The distance for Grades 7 to 12 is 3.6 kilometres.
Families who didn’t fall under that criteria had the option of applying for a courtesy spot with Stock Transportation, the company that operates the routes.
“Often we hear that it may be a safety concern, so Stock would have a process that they use for those types of assessments and our board would make those decisions on an individual basis,” said Halifax Regional School Board spokesperson, Doug Hadley.
“There will probably be some courtesy busing this year because there will be a seat here or a seat there, but there will be cases probably where we have less of that going on this year.”
Hadley says two recent changes have limited the number of courtesy spots: routes will now drop off students at school only within the 20-minute supervision period before the start of school and elementary schools have now combined two dismissal times into one.
The school board says parents need to double-check route schedules online at this link or by calling Stock Transportation at (902) 481-8400 because families that had courtesy busing in the past may no longer receive it.
But parents say it has been difficult to get information, especially so close to the start of school.
“With less than 24 hours notice, it’s going to be very tough for people to come up with a Plan B,” Munday said.
“I’m going to march my kids to the bus stop tomorrow and hope they bring them home after.”
READ MORE: Halifax councillor wants children’s school bus access criteria updated
Lisa Blackburn, councillor for District 14 (Middle/Upper Sackville-Beaver Bank-Lucasville), said she and other councillors have been fielding many calls from parents who are upset with the late notice on the changes.
“It’s a huge safety concern,” Blackburn said. “I’ve probably received a dozen calls and emails about the issue since last night.”
In particular, she’s worried about the elementary school students in her district who will now have to cross Beaver Bank Road and Millwood Drive to reach Beaver Bank-Monarch Drive Elementary.
“It’s arguably one of the busiest intersections in HRM,” she said.
Blackburn says parents at that school were only told about the changes last night during an orientation meeting, so she is working to get parents more information on the issue.
“There’s really not much I can do about it. This is a provincial matter but certainly, I can raise the red flag and put the feet to the fire.”
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