Families in Abbotsford, B.C., scrambling after repeated school bus cancellations
After a school year marked by disruptions, some parents in an Abbotsford neighbourhood are demanding answers from local officials in the face of ongoing school bus cancellations.
“We rely on the bus system,” said parent Krista Reid, noting that her family lives in Auguston, which makes it difficult for her kids to walk to school.
“We’re often left with an hour’s notice to scramble around. For working parents, that’s extremely difficult. I can’t imagine a single parent or families with one vehicle… Sometimes it’s left that the kids just don’t make it to school.”
Some families have kept track of the disruptions. Reid said she and another parent counted 27 cancellations since September between two bus routes.
She added that cancellations have become more frequent over the last few months. And while she recognizes issues such as weather or bus breakdowns will cause issues from time to time, the volume of cancellations demands an explanation.
“Once a month, maybe even, would be a reasonable amount of time,” she said. “But after 27 times, this isn’t unexpected.”
Rylan MacDonell, another parent, voiced his concerns in an email to the Abbotsford School District, which he shared with Global News.
“I am writing to express my frustration over the constant cancellations of bus number 34, which seem to happen almost every week. This last-minute disruption affects 80 to100 families and has become completely unacceptable,” MacDonell wrote.
“Parents deserve answers and a solution – this ongoing situation is no longer sustainable.”
The Abbotsford School District confirmed there have been 84 school bus cancellations district-wide so far this school year, with the Auguston routes being among the hardest hit.
“That particular route has been impacted to a greater degree just with the particular situation and the bus drivers that maintain that route,” said Nathan Ngieng, deputy superintendent of the Abbotsford School District.
“We apologize for the cancellations that have occurred.”
The district blames the cancellations on an increase in absences among bus drivers and difficulty finding replacements.
Ngieng, however, said the district is confident it will have a sufficient number of drivers hired and trained in the near future.
“We continue to actively recruit and hire bus drivers that can fill in when we have these absence issues,” he said, noting that drivers must have a high level of qualification to ensure student safety.
“The other piece is working on our communication with families to alert them to cancellations when they’re happening.”
Ngieng also said the district is working to improve communication with schools to help them understand the rate of cancellations and help them be flexible in dealing with students who arrive late.
Still, many families say such measures should have been in place before the school year started.
“There has to be some accountability. We want our kids to be punctual. If it’s one child being late consistently because of a bus cancellation, then they go into a class of 30, it’s disrupting the learning of 30 other kids,” Krista Reid said.
“Nothing prompts parents to speak out more than wanting their kids to be able to have a safe route to school and accessibility to education in a timely manner.”
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