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Freezing rain on Tuesday morning meant that buses were cancelled in North Hastings’ first ‘snow day’ of the season.
As usual, schools remained open and parents could drop off their kids, if driving themselves. They then need to pick them up at the end of the day.
This year, for the first time, this might not always be the case.
Tri-board transportation, who manages school bussing in North Hastings, says they are piloting ‘half-day’ bus cancellations in the region.
According to Tri-board CEO Jeremy DaCosta, on days that the weather is set to clear in the afternoon, buses will drive kids’ home that have made their own way to school in the morning.
“We would cancel buses in the morning but operate them in the afternoon if we had confidence that the conditions would improve by the afternoon period to transport students home safely.”
DaCosta says the call for half vs full-day cancellations would be made early in the morning, usually around 5 a.m. or 5:30 a.m.
“We want to ensure that it’s very clear to families and to schools, we don’t intend to wait until mid-morning or lunchtime. That’s just far too late for families to consider and plan their day.”
DaCosta says parents can stay informed of cancellations through the Triboard online student portal, social media and their website, where cancellations are listed.
“The distinction will be it will say ‘AM Cancelled Only’ when it’s a half day cancellation.”
If it says ‘cancelled’ that means the buses are cancelled for the full day.
DaCosta went on to say that historically North Hastings is the area most challenged when it comes to bus cancellations. Last year North Hastings had the most snow days of all the Triboard school bus zones.
“It is about trying to ensure students can get to school whenever possible, to ensure that they have good attendance… Near the beginning of the winter season and the end of the winter season as we come into spring, we do have a number of these weather events where we have a weather condition that occurs but by later in the day it has cleared. So it’s a good model to trial this in the North Hastings area because of that history and because of the nature of the conditions that tend to exist in that area.”
You can find out more about bus transportation in North Hastings on the Triboard website.