For the last two Abbotsford school board meetings, trustees have heard personal stories of how the district’s understaffed bus system has affected local families.
In the fall of 2022, the district was having days with as many as seven bus route cancellations.
One parent came to discuss the matter with them at the Dec. 13 during a question period, and at the most recent meeting, a parent was able to have her complaint put on the agenda.
Melissa Markle has three children and is the chair of the parent advisory council at Mt. Lehman elementary. She’s also a former education assistant in the Abbotsford school district, although she works elsewhere currently. Education is important to their family, she told the board, and missing school due to bus cancellations aren’t acceptable.
Multiple, last-minute cancellations in morning bus services have also unfairly hit her family in the pocketbook and caused morning for many families.
The cancellations often come with just 20 minutes of notice, which means she and her husband have already left for work. So the choices are that one of the parents leave work and lose paid time, or their young children stay home alone and miss school.
“I did my job as a parent,” she said. “I booked busing, I planned my childcare around what was supposed to happen. So to cancel last minute is not OK.”
She also has safety concerns for children left waiting at bus stops without knowing there is a cancellation, and those who get dropped off up to an hour before school by parents on the way to work. Both are scenarios she said happened in the recent spate of cancellations.
“To have a 20-minute cancellation is just mind-boggling,” she said. “Could you not just give notice, so (we) can plan around it?”
The bus system is under stress, the board said, as hiring bus drivers has become difficult. The work is part time and divided into two shifts in the day, which limits the potential applicants.
The district is working to recruit more drivers, Ray Velestuk said later in the meeting.
There are 47 regular bus driver positions in the district, including five floater positions and four driver/general maintenance positions, two of which are unfilled. He noted that there are currently five drivers on leave for an unknown duration.
Velestuk said the upcoming budget includes an increase in driver positions, as well.
The district was in the middle of a transportation review in 2020, he added, but it got left on the shelf during the pandemic as the department pivoted to the changing needs of the district. Bus drivers in general are in demand across the country and it’s a common issue in school districts, board chair Korky Neufeld noted.
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