Providing school bus transportation for more than 18,500 students every day can be a balancing act for the Student Transportation Services Brant Haldimand Norfolk (STSBHN).
Advertisement 2
Article content
A consortium of the Grand Erie District School Board, the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board, and Conseil Scolaire Catholique MonAvenir, the STSBHN has more than 400 drivers traveling 461 routes ensuring children get to and from school each day in Brant, Haldimand, and Norfolk counties, along with the City of Brantford.
Article content
“Our current demand is going to be going up over the coming years,” said Philip Kuckyt, manager of transportation services. “The long-term plan – available on the Grand Erie website – I believe it shows that over the next 10 years they expect a 20 per cent growth in student population within the district, which is an eye-watering number.
“It’s going to be an interesting decade ahead of us.”
Advertisement 3
Article content
A shortage of school bus drivers at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year required some creative problem-solving for the consortium.
“We don’t do cancellations outside of inclement weather cancellations,” noted Kuckyt. “Service will be provided in albeit a late fashion.”
He said some routes are doubled, meaning a driver will do their regular route and then head back out to pick up a group of students that doesn’t have a permanent driver associated with them.
As of mid-December, there remains one bus route that was not being covered on a permanent basis.
“We always choose to run a bus late over not at all because even if students are arriving an hour late for school, at least they’re getting the majority of their school day,” explained Kuckyt. “It might be Bus 1 on Monday, Bus 2 on Tuesday, just so it’s not the same individuals or communities being hit.
Advertisement 4
Article content
“An hour is the outward window. On an inner-city Brantford route, it might be 15 to 20 minutes late.”
The distance from a family’s residence to the school in their zone is the predominant factor for students to qualify for bus transportation.
For elementary students in the Grand Erie and French-language boards, the student must live more than 1.6 kilometers from the school, while for the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board that distance is 1.4 kilometers.
For high school students at all local school boards to qualify for bus transportation they must live more than 3.2 kilometers from the school.
The manager of transportation services said there are 14 individuals currently in various stages of bus driver training.
Advertisement 5
Article content
He remains optimistic that when the new calendar year starts, STSBHN will be flush with drivers and the school bus companies will be able to build up spare driver ranks to deal with illness, injuries, or vacations.
To upgrade your driver’s license to be able to drive a commercial vehicle school bus, a Class B or Class D license is required.
A Ministry of Transportation license check and criminal background check via a local police service is part of the process, but the training can usually be done in two to three weeks’ time, at no cost.
“With the demand we currently have and for future growth as well, we encourage anyone to reach out to (STSBHN) if they are interested in getting information on becoming a professional school bus driver,” Kuckyt said.
The consortium’s website at www.stsbhn.ca has a section with information on becoming a driver.
The STSBHN also provides notifications of cancellations due to inclement weather on its X (Twitter) account @STSBHN, through a couple of mobile phone apps, its website, or by calling 519-751-7532.
Article content