There will be more traffic on roadways this morning as another school year begins.
Anglophone East School District Transportation Manager David McCormick says this includes all of the buses that have been parked for the summer, “We have 133 buses and we are bussing around 12, 000 students daily.”
He says the first week is always challenging, ‘There will be parents showing up to schools that first week just registering students, so we have no indication that they are even requiring bussing. So that causes a big influx of phone calls and emails and trying to get things established as quickly as possible. We do our routes over every summer and we have lots of changes yearly because of people moving in and moving out. Through the summer months, we usually have around 800 students that move for that reason.”
Many of the students will be riding the bus for the very first time, and McCormick has this advice, “Ensuring that when they do board the bus, that they take their seat and seat quietly and listen to the driver. A lot of things are happening in those first few weeks of school and the driver has to keep a great focus.”
Motorists need to ensure they are aware of all of the school buses and the children boarding them, “It’s critical that people start taking caution when seeing the yellow buses again, slowing down, recognizing that there are new students out there, some of them who have never been bussed. So it is be cautious. Our biggest challenge is once the yellow lights come on as a warning, some motorists try to get past the bus before the red lights come on and that becomes a challenge for the district every year.”
