With changes to the upcoming school year due to COVID-19, bussing will be a different experience for students.
But the Superintendent for Anglophone East School District is unsure at this point exactly what things will look like.
Gregg Ingersoll says they are awaiting clarification from Public Health and the province, “How many students can be on a bus with physical distancing. We are waiting to get a little bit more clarification on that, and once we have that information we can decide what can we do.”
He says, one of things that will be considered if necessary, is looking at students who are walking each day, “Are we going to have to extend the walking distance for students? Right now, students in grades K to 8 are picked up at 1.5 kilometres. Is that going to have to be extended out further in order to do other bus runs for students who live further away, to ensure we can get them all in school?”
Ingersoll says one of the issues is school may start a little earlier or a little later than it did before, “The issue is students may have to be picked up earlier and they may get dropped off later. Before, the buses would all pull up, and the students would get on and away they went. For the upcoming school year, that may have to happen two or three times to get all of those students home. Some important planning will have to be done. We don’t want students to get to school too early, and we don’t want them to leave too late.”
He adds, they’ll also have to consider the number of buses and drivers they have, “We can probably find us some drivers, but the buses will be the issue. If you are going to get new buses you have to order those a long time in advance. There might be a few buses around that are available, but getting 30 new buses is not going to happen for September.”
Once the transportation department is able to come up with a plan, they will be notifying students to ensure they are aware of how students will be getting to and from school and at what time.
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