On Friday all school buses did not run in the Saskatchewan Rivers School Division because of the cold weather on Friday morning.
Buses operated by the division for elementary and rural students did not run, with the division partnering with the city for High School transportation.
According to Ryan Bruce, Manager of Transportation Services, this policy is similar to other divisions in the province.
“Just speaking for ourselves, we just want to make sure the kids are safe. And having a vehicle out there that’s been sitting all night in the freezing cold and all the mechanical sensors and all the things that can go wrong on a school bus,” Bruce said.
Bruce said that the last thing that the division wants is a school bus with 30 students running into trouble, especially in a rural area.
“They’re just less dependable in the cold, and the manufacturers will even say that you shouldn’t be running, especially wheelchair lifts, after a certain point. It’s just all in the call for safety for the kids,” Bruce said.
Students can stay at home or be transported by parents to school.
“We know that if they’re safe at home, warm in their homes, that the parents can get them to school if that’s what they decide to do in their own time, rather than having the kids out there on a big hunk of metal that never really gets very warm in the first place, but especially not when you’re looking at minus 45 weather,” he explained.
The threshold for bus cancellations is -40 without a wind chill or –35 with a –45 wind chill in the division.
Buses did run in the division on Thursday but on Friday that wind chill threshold was met.
“We did run yesterday. We didn’t quite hit minus 45 in our school division, but today, we crushed that. We definitely made that mark.
Schools are open as a safety matter as well, though Bruce could not directly address the matter and could speak only on the transportation side.
“I really can’t speak to the education side. But we want to make sure that the kids have a safe place to go in. For the schools, it’s business as usual. We want the kids in the classrooms learning.
When all the bus routes are cancelled, this become part of the transportation accountability report that goes before the board. Bruce said that the data from this cold snap should appear in the next accountability report at the February board meeting.
“And we always do a comparison year to year. I think our cancellations this year, we have had a bit of a milder winter. This is the first time we’ve seen a massive temperature based cancellation,” he explained.
Bruce explained that they make these decisions based on a number of factors.
“We look at the weather network, we look at the weather radar, we look at highways, we look at the expected winds, and we make the best decision that we can based on those factors,” Bruce said.
He said that the predictions dictate the bus cancellations.
“And we’re really counting on those predictions to be accurate in order to make the correct call when it comes to cancellations,” Bruce said.
Bruce explained that everyone in the division tries to make the proper calls and is looking our first for the safety of the students.
“We have an amazing team of bus drivers and mechanics and administratively.
We have a great team that our only focus is on the safety of the kids and trying to get them to school and home again. But sometimes the proper call is to cancel the buses to ensure that they do remain safe,” Bruce said.
