BONNYVILLE - The most recent of five school bus routes cancelled in the Bonnyville area since September was confirmed by school board officials at the end of February.
Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS) officials have announced the cancellation of bus Route 68 stationed in Bonnyville due to a driver shortage. The route, which is operated by contractor Southland Transportation, was suddenly without a driver with no available immediate replacements, said Terry Moghrabi, the associate superintendent of curriculum and programming at NLPS, at the board's last meeting of February
“Southland gave us notice - very short notice - that their driver was no longer going to be driving for them. They’re having some trouble trying to find a replacement.”
The route mainly services student-riders in the subdivisions and rural areas near the Bonnyville town boundaries.
Transportation issues across the division have been amplified this school year, said Moghrabi, pointing to COVID-related obstacles, funding, weather conditions and driver availability. The school division has been experiencing bus driver shortages for years due to increased insurance costs for drivers, the cost and travel required for the Mandatory Entry Level Training Program (MELT) program and overall contractor shortages.
“Unfortunately it hasn’t been uncommon that I share this type of news this year. Not just due to COVID, not just due to the extreme cold snaps but purely due to driver shortages.”
Large impact in Bonnyville
Although the service disruptions are not new for the division that services 26 schools across the region with more than 60 bus routes, Bonnyville school bus services have been hit the hardest this school year, said Moghrabi.
“We haven’t been having a whole lot of luck. Bonnyville has had probably the hardest hit with five routes that had to be collapsed since September, and we continue to struggle with the driver shortage issue. But we’re working on it.”
Re-routing
Managing how to provide alternative solutions for students who are impacted by the service disruptions is not a simple fix, said Moghrabi. Attempting to consolidate other bus routes to fill the void could impact other students.
“Right now, it’s not about the priority of who gets it, it’s whether we can actually have buses going in that direction to pick up kids without delaying the schedule of kids coming into the school,” said Moghrabi.
One option the school division has offered in recent months is the purchase of its own bus to reduce external challenges.
In the most recent case, solutions are being gathered with NLPS director of transportation, Matt Richter, and Southland Transportation, he said.
“We will work with Matt and Southland to try to help them find a replacement driver. At best we’ll try to help collapse some of our current routes to see if we can pick up some of those students who are in that range of the two-point four kilometres,” Richter said.
Provincial funding support
Expecting a continuation of growing transportation issue, NLPS officials voiced their concerns two years ago at the start of that school year to province’s Alberta’s Student Transportation Task Force which took consultation information and implemented 21 recommendations to address school bus disruptions across the province. The province say some of the recommendations started to be addressed in Phase 1 of the implementation process in 2021.
Now in phase two, the third and final phase of the task force’s mandate is expected to be complete by this September. The final phase of the project focuses on the development of a student transportation-funding model for the 2022/23 or 2023/24 school year. The current legislated student transportation requirements, including eligibility criteria, will be reviewed as part of this work.
And as the division plans to send a letter to the task force, reminding it about the challenges that rural school boards continue to face, NLPS trustee Debra Lozinski is not confident they will be heard, considering how severe the issues have been, and how it has been addressed through the task force’s action items.
“Even when you look at what they did with the public and the vague report that they have done. The soonest any of that happens is one and a half years away. I don’t know why they are not taking this seriously. I don’t get it — It’s damn serious,” she said.
Regardless of provincial support, NLPS Board Vice-Chair Garry Kissel says it boils down to having trained drivers available right away and funding from the province.
“I think we’re in a situation right now where even if the province tomorrow should say here is a nice little pot. It’s going to take a while to trickle down anyway—we just don’t have drivers.”
Next step
Ultimately, division officials will work with and support current contractors' recruitment process while they find solutions, said Moghrabi.
Several advertisements calling for bus drivers have been posted, along with long-standing requests on the division’s website.
“We have a few leads, but I don’t know if we are going to get a lot of traction…. but we’re working on it,” said Moghrabi.
