The COVID-19 pandemic has brought its share of disruptions to the education sector, most notably periods of online learning for three consecutive school years as public health officials have attempted to get a handle on the spread of the virus.
School bus transportation has also taken a blow, most recently involving multiple route cancellations because drivers are absent due to COVID-19 isolation rules. There have also been bus cancellations due to an ongoing labour shortage in the sector.
On top of these COVID-related disruptions have been a large number of snow days so far this school year.
When school buses are cancelled locally, schools are generally kept open, meaning students can still go to school - that is, if their parents are so inclined, and if they’re still able to get there without the school bus.
According to statistics provided by the Sudbury Student Services Consortium, there have already been 11 days with weather-related school bus cancellations in the 2021-22 school year.
That includes four cancellations affecting the consortium’s entire service area (which includes Greater Sudbury, Espanola, Massey and Manitoulin Island), four affecting just the Greater Sudbury, Espanola and Massey areas and one morning-only cancellation (affecting the consortium’s entire service area).
Other years in which there were large numbers of weather-related school bus cancellations include 2018-19, when there were 13 such days, and 2012-13, when there were 10.
In the last school year, 2020-21, there was only one day when buses were cancelled due to inclement weather. In person-school was shuttered in this area in March 2021, but we’re only at the end of February right now, meaning the number of snow days is far higher this year.
Consortium executive director Renée Boucher said the large number of snow days so far this school year has been unfortunate, acknowledging the aforementioned pandemic-related disruptions to both education and school bus transportation.
She said she understands that all of these bus cancellations put parents in a bad position, but that the safety of children must always be put first. Boucher recommends that parents always have a “plan B” in place, in case school buses don’t run.
Boucher said this decision is always made with the information available as of 5 a.m. on the given school day in order to notify all parties.
She relies on information from weather applications, as well as school bus operators, the municipalities’ road crews and her own staff, “and must trust in their professional judgment.”
They’re looking at not only the main roads, but the condition of side roads, which often are plowed later. Boucher said municipalities are also being hit with COVID-related absences, meaning snowplowing operations are being affected.
With a shift to more energy-efficient buses over the past couple of decades, the newer model of buses are also more reluctant to start in the extreme cold.
So far this school year, cancellations have been mostly related to either snow or freezing rain, although there was one day where morning buses were cancelled due to extreme cold (Boucher said in this case, buses can run in the afternoon once the weather has warmed up).
Some have taken to the internet to complain about school bus cancellations on days when inclement weather didn’t hit with the predicted severity.
Boucher admits this situation is a little frustrating, but she tries to get information early in the morning from as many sources as she can before making the call.
“But sometimes The Weather Network and all of these applications get it wrong,” she said.
Boucher said she hopes that 2021-22 doesn’t set the record for the number of snow days, but acknowledges there is still more winter to come. “I think we're all we're all wanting snow and ice and rain to stop,” she said.
Asked if the criteria for school bus cancellations has changed over the years, Boucher said it’s true that snow days were much more rare in her own youth.
But those were the days before the amalgamation of several municipalities into the City of Greater Sudbury, and the roads crews and school bus operators were able to work much more closely together, as it was a smaller geographic area.
“It was very much like what we have currently on Manitoulin Island,” Boucher said.
Also, with the creation of the school bus consortium, school bus drivers started doing a couple of runs each morning and afternoon (i.e. for elementary and high school) to create efficiencies..
This means that they have to start earlier than they did many years ago, meaning the roads might not be clear.
Sudbury Catholic District School Board chair Michael Bellmore said the weather-related school bus cancellations we’ve seen so far this school year certainly “compounds” some of the COVID-related school bus transportation challenges.
“But how do you control weather?” he said, although he echoes Boucher in saying he doesn’t remember nearly so many snow days in his own youth.
As both the chair of a school board and a parent of children in school himself, Bellmore said he can see both sides of the issue.
He said he knows there’s a difference between driving himself to work in inclement weather, and having responsibility for the lives of children in a school bus.
Bellmore said there is a provincial working group examining the many challenges currently being experienced by the school bus transportation sector, and the Ontario Catholic School Trustees Association (OCSTA) has a seat on that group.
The group is “working with the province and the education partners to ensure that transportation is delivered in a timely and cost effective fashion.”
Last year, the provincial government required school boards to develop a section on inclement weather as part of their reopening plans, which may include pivoting to remote learning.
Some school boards have elected to do just that, including the Thames Valley District School Board, which will provide online learning when schools close on snow days.
However, as stated above, local schools normally remain open when school buses are cancelled.
Bellmore said teachers at Sudbury Catholic schools are asked not to introduce new materials to the students who do make it to the classroom on snow days so kids fall behind.
He said it’s hard to say if online learning will eventually be introduced locally on days when school buses are cancelled. There are issues involving collective agreements with education workers to be considered, Bellmore said.
However, if students need to stay home due to COVID-19 self-isolation rules, they are accommodated.
“Things have changed for education delivery since the pandemic has occurred,” Bellmore said. “I think that's going to be analyzed by ministry officials for some time to come to see what can be gleaned from that.”
