After a four-month delay, a local parent now has transportation for her Junior Kindergarten daughter.
Cameo Robson reached out to MyParrySoundNow.com after being given what she calls “the run around” from the Near North District School board and the Nipissing Parry Sound Student Transportation Service, often referred to as the consortium by the school board. Last Monday she found out a van would be picking up her daughter
Robson’s daughter is a JK student and moved to the area with her family in July from Alberta. When she registered her daughter for school, Robson says she was promised door-to-door pick-up for her daughter to attend school.
Hammond Transportation is given student pick-up contracts by the consortium on behalf of the school board. It was determined by Hammond that a 72-passenger bus could not safely turn around on Macfarlane street as a result of steep hills and narrow roadways and deemed the area as a no pickup zone.
An alternative was presented to parents and students to wait for their bus at the corner of 4 Emily Street at Champagne Street. The alternative spot was considered unsafe by Robson because the roads are steep and she is unable to see oncoming traffic. There are also no sidewalks on either side of those roads.
“I began the process of having my daughter’s pick up location moved to a safe location August 19th. I have made several appeals and continued to push for what should have been in place, to begin with, a safe pick up location for all students. No parent or child should fear for their lives twice a day, 5 days a week so their child can get an education,” she said.
Chuck Seguin, Executive Officer of Nipissing Parry Sound Student Transportation Services agreed with Robson’s concerns and promised her a van pick up for her daughter on October 5th for the following week. Nothing happened.
When we reached out to Nipissing Parry Sound Student Transportation Services, Seguin referred to the delay in transportation as a province-wide school bus driver shortage. Scott Hammond, Operations Manager of Hammond Transportation said the companies recruitment ads must have expired, but they are, in fact, hiring bus drivers.
Elizabeth Therrien, the Superintendent of Business who oversees transportation for the Near North District School Board says she first heard about Robson’s complaint on November 16th. She says she is not sure why the long wait was a factor.
“I would assume if there is a lengthy period of time, either person doesn’t have the proper information, misunderstanding or miscommunications,” Therrien said.
“From a school board perspective, the school boards policies are to provide pickup where possible, not always is door-to-door pickup possible. That is the path that we’ll originally go down and the consortium will follow our business practices. I had an appropriate staff member follow-up and that’s when we determined that a different mode of transportation could be provided as opposed to a school bus and that’s what we did approve,” she said.
The Near North District School Board spoke with the consortium said they were able to support a different mode of transportation in order to have door-to-door service for JK students. The van service was initiated on December 3rd.