Frustrations mount over late school buses in rural Halifax

Families with students who take the bus in a rural area southwest of Halifax say they’re becoming increasingly concerned about delayed school buses that sometimes get students to and from school more than an hour late.

They say there have been instances where the bus hasn't shown up, leaving families in the Prospect area scrambling to make other arrangements with little notice.

Katharine Privett, who lives in Whites Lake, has a son in pre-primary who catches the bus from a community centre with a before-and-after school program.

“It has been horrific. You're in the middle of a meeting and they're calling and [you're thinking], ‘Is my kid sick? Was there an accident on the bus? Did they not show up at school?’ You kind of don't know what goes on,” she said.

The Halifax Regional Centre for Education (HRCE) told CBC News that late buses can happen for a variety of reasons, including unexpected traffic tie-ups, construction, mechanical issues or driver shortages.

It said it is aware of the issue in the Prospect area and is “actively exploring solutions with our bus providers.”

Miscommunications and delays

In a statement, the HRCE said if a bus is going to be delayed, the driver notifies their dispatch centre, which then tells families through the BusPlanner notification system. The centre said families will only get the emails or text notifications if they’re signed up to receive them.

“Families can sign up through the BusPlanner Parent Portal. We are also working with our bus providers to ensure the communications process is followed quickly and efficiently to notify families,” a spokesperson for HRCE said in an email.

“We continue to work diligently with our providers to support efficient and dependable transportation for our students. We ask that anyone with a concern reach out directly.”

Another issue Privett highlighted is that on days when the bus has a substitute driver, the bus tracker — a GPS system — appears as "unavailable."

"And then you have to call HRCE and they have to then contact the provider for the provider to find out where the bus is," she said.

Privett said she and others were notified by the HRCE that it was hoping to have the issue resolved by mid-December. Privett doesn’t think that’s an acceptable answer.

“Telling parents it's going to be another two to three weeks until there's a solution and then Christmas will hit, January — are we going to have the same problems or are they actually actively trying to solve the issue?” she said.

'I can't just up and leave work'

Hillary Ripley of Whites Lake has a daughter in pre-primary and said there have been multiple instances of miscommunication and delays. She said families aren’t always informed about last-minute changes, like a substitute bus driver.

“They don't notify you of substitute drivers, which is a bit challenging for myself and my daughter. She has high-functioning autism and changes to her routine and things like that are really hard for her,” Ripley said.

“So for me to not even know that there's a different driver or that there's going to be a delay is super challenging because the bus drivers are showing up and [my daughter] doesn’t know who they are, they’re late. The kids don’t really know what’s going on.”

Ripley works in downtown Halifax and said she has received a call from the before-school program that operates out of a community centre — where the bus picks her daughter for school — to come get her because the bus didn’t come.

“I can’t just up and leave work, so it’s been a little bit unnerving,” she said.

In that instance, she said another parent was able to pick her daughter up and take her to school, but she said families shouldn’t be put in that position.

“It just seems to be like a whole mismatch and the school never knows what’s going on, the community centre doesn’t know what’s going on. It just seems like it's such a big disconnect on so many levels,” she said.

Schools not told about late buses, parent says

Michelle Peters of Terence Bay has a son in Grade 12 who takes the bus to Halifax West. She said there doesn’t seem to be much communication between the bus, HRCE and the school when it is running very late.

“He’s being marked either late or absent, so that’s taking time out of myself or my husband’s mornings to having to call the school to make sure that he’s not being penalized in school for being late or absent because he’s at the bus stop, he’s there, he’s waiting,” Peters said.

Marsha Ball of Brookside has two children who attend high school and one in elementary school. She said the situation is worse with the high school bus, which is consistently late by 20 minutes each day.

“The students were getting to school late. There were days when the bus just completely missed our road and I’d be watching it on the bus tracker, the GPS thing that they have online for us, and I could see it driving by our road, so I’d have to phone the transportation crew and ask them to come back and pick up my daughter,” Ball said.

Ball said she’s contacted the high school to tell them about the bus being delayed. She said often the school isn’t aware about buses running late.

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