Bus cancellations are an expected part of a Muskoka winter but the last several weeks have been unusual – school buses were cancelled for six out of nine days since students returned to classes on January 9. It impacts students and teachers, bus drivers, and parents of younger children who must scramble to either drive their kids to and from school or make childcare arrangements. It’s not a decision made hastily.
How is the decision to cancel buses made?
It starts with the bus companies. Dean Campbell, owner of Campbell Bus Lines in Huntsville, said that they’re out on the road at 4:30am, checking road conditions on routes in different areas and conferring with local public works staff. They’re required to have road condition information to the Trillium Lakelands District School Board office by 5:30am.
Campbell said that the bus companies aren’t involved in the decision to cancel buses – they receive direction from the school board after staff there have considered other factors. He did note, however, that although his company’s buses are equipped with gripper tires designed for use in mud and snow, the bigger issues are the weight of the bus – even though it’s a big vehicle an empty school bus doesn’t weigh that much – and the potential for other drivers to lose control and run into a bus. The road condition that most often contributes to a bus cancellation is ice rather than volume of snow.
Once school board staff – the Superintendent of Business in consultation with the Transportation Supervisor – are armed with road condition information, they also consider current and forecasted weather conditions as reported by Environment Canada before making a decision on whether to cancel buses for the day. When buses are cancelled, they are cancelled across an entire area rather then just specific routes. Within the TLDSB, those areas are Muskoka, Haliburton and Kawartha Lakes. Road conditions can vary greatly within an area and even on a specific bus route.
The TLDSB standard is to make a decision before 6:30am and post it no later than 7:00am in order to get information to parents as soon as possible, said TLDSB Transportation Supervisor Tricia Hayward. The board posts updates to a subscription service, mybustoschool.ca, as well as its social media channels and website.
When buses are cancelled, Hayward said “there is a provision in the contract with the bus operators for an
adjustment on days the buses do not operate.”
Why not just close the schools?
While many people refer to bus cancellation days as ‘snow days’, that’s a misnomer. Schools remain open on those days and, in fact, are rarely closed due to inclement weather.
“Schools remain open to accommodate parents who cannot make alternate arrangements for their children,” said TLDSB communications officer Laura Blaker via email. “Very rarely do we close schools on inclement weather days. You would only see this in the case of power outages etc. Occasionally, given the severity of the weather, principals can make skeletal staffing arrangements … however, schools must remain open for students and other stakeholders, so there does need to be staff who stays at the school until the end of the school day.”
We checked in with Huntsville High School principal, Kim Williams, who added that on days when buses are cancelled, teachers are required to report to the nearest school they can safely get to if they can’t make it to their own.
How do the cancellations impact teachers and students?
Williams said that, this being Muskoka, bus cancellations are expected and teachers build accommodations into their planning for the semester in case there are days where they lose classroom instruction time because of the weather. There is also an extra day added to the high school exam schedule so that if a bus cancellation occurs on an exam day, the entire schedule is pushed back a day to make up for it. This semester’s exams are scheduled from January 27 to February 2.
“When we do have those days, (teachers) are going back to their planning to see what they can adjust to ensure that the essential skills are covered without adding more stress to students,” said Williams. “When we have as many days as we’ve had, they work together with other teachers who are teaching same subject matter to determine what do we really need to get through and what can we eliminate to ensure students are feeling comfortable going into exams.” She added that if teachers aren’t able to cover a topic with their classes because of bus cancellations, they’ll remove it from the exam.
Attendance on bus cancellation days is low, said Williams – the majority of students are usually bussed to school – but that there are some students who are able to get there via other means. Teachers will work one-on-one at the school with students who can safely get there, and will also provide support by phone or email for those students who have reliable access to the internet from home. “The library is usually full with senior students studying, and the gym is full with kids playing, getting a lot of exercise.”
At local elementary schools, classroom instruction may continue if there are enough students, or grades may be grouped together for learning activities that aren’t grade-specific.
Why can’t they just teach students online?
Williams said that teachers do use technology to support students already, both on bus cancellation days and otherwise, but that effort can be hampered by the rural nature of our area.
“A lot of our teachers have already migrated to using Google Classrooms and other online platforms to be able to provide learning material to students, even just to cover students who are away for different reasons over the course of the semester,” said Williams. “But they are cognizant that not all students can access the internet from where they live, and it’s not a case where they can just walk to the library and use the internet there. They are careful to provide those opportunities (online) but not make that a mandatory requirement of the course which would penalize students for not having control over internet access. It’s a balancing act.”
Although it throws off their plans, teachers do understand why bus cancellations occur, said Williams. “It’s hard, but student safety is of the utmost importance.”
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Thanks for this detailed article. I was always under the impression that the bus companies cancelled the buses, not the school board. Thanks for clearing this up for me.
Very good and logical article.