Bear Lake students left waiting as SD 57 bussing woes persist

Students are now two months into the school year, but School District 57’s bus issues are continuing.

Jennifer Reimer is a parent of three SD 57 students, and a resident of Bear Lake.

She said that last week, all of the parents in the community received an email saying the bus route that picks up the students from Bear Lake would not be running in the morning.

“We thought ‘ok, whatever,’ at first, we didn’t think anything of it, but then it started the next day, and the next day, and the next day, then it was the whole week,” she explained.

“Then we get an email once again on Sunday (October 23rd), that the bus will not be running again.”

She added they’ve been receiving calls from the school, saying ‘your kids shouldn’t be missing anymore school, they’re going to fall behind.’

Reimer said she and her husband called First Student Canada to find out what was going on.

She said when her husband called he was told  “the bus driver that’s supposed to drive out here and pick up some kids told [Student First Canada] that she doesn’t see a need to pick the children up there anymore.”

“That was when I decided that’s not acceptable, that’s not right,” Reimer said.

Reimer said there are 25 high school students that take the bus to school from Bear Lake.

“I don’t know how many elementary school kids there are, but 25 is a lot of kids that aren’t going to school right now because the bus driver doesn’t see a need in driving out here anymore,” she said.

Reimer said some parents have been driving their children in to school in the morning, but that’s not an option for several families in the community.

“The girl across the way, her husband works and they only have one vehicle, so she can’t be driving them either,” she explained.

“I usually work an evening, graveyard shift, and the problem with [my husband’s] job, is he sometimes ends up doing a lot of overtime, so even if he could drive them to school, even though they’d be getting dropped off at six o’ clock in the morning, they might not get a ride back, or they’re standing there waiting for the bus.”

Reimer said there is a bus that brings the kids home after school, but there are problems there as well.

“The bus picks up the elementary kids first after school, and then they drive them around town for an hour, dropping other kids off, then goes to the high school and picks up the high school kids,” she said.

“Not only now are the elementary kids sitting on the bus for an hour, the high school kids are sitting outside of the school waiting for the bus. It was hot not that long ago, the school’s closed, they can’t go back in the school if they need to, and then with winter coming, is that going to happen when winter shows up? They have to stand outside when it’s minus 40, and then they get driven home, that’s a two hour bus ride for a five-year-old, and to me, it’s unacceptable.”

She added they, along with other parents in the Bear Lake community, have been contacting the School District, as well as Prince George-Mackenzie MLA Mike Morris.

“It’s just a disaster, kids aren’t getting into their classes, the schools are concerned kids are missing classes,” Morris said.

“Bear Lake’s an hours drive North of the city, and it’s a struggle for a lot of parents to make that trip on a daily basis.”

Morris added his office has emailed a letter to the Minister of Education’s office, but has not received a response.

“We’ve been aware of it for quite some time, I didn’t realize it escalated to this particular point,” Morris said.

“I do know that my office has been in touch with First Student, and with the School District as well. We’ve been assured there should be a remedy by the weekend. We’ll wait and see, but in the meantime, I’m still going to be pressing the Minister for some response.”

School District 57 Assistant Superintendent Lee Karpenko said there is a shortage of drivers, and that First Student is working to hire drivers.

“As they’re hiring drivers, their bus drivers are getting sick or ill or all of the above, every so often we have to cancel routes,” Karpenko said.

“The routes that they cancelled this week, and a few times in previous weeks were the bear lake bus, and that is a concern for us, and for the community as well.”

He said they met with First Student about the issue yesterday (Monday).

“They are working diligently to come up with a solution for it, and we should know by Friday what the solution is,” Karpenko said.

He added there is an absolute need for the students in Bear Lake to be bussed to Prince George.

“We know these long routes are really troublesome for parents, and we certainly don’t want our students to suffer as a result,” Karpenko said.

In an emailed statement, Frist Student Canada said:

“We understand the stress that nationwide school bus driver shortage is putting on parents and students, causing the changing of routes. We are working to identity route efficiencies to pick up as many students as possible, and continue to actively recruit, hire and train new drivers.”

This isn’t the first speed bump for the School District’s new bus provider this year.

Two days before the school year started, several bus drivers tendered their resignation, affecting six routes.

Additionally, one father in Blackburn said his son was dropped off by the bus provider in the wrong location, on an 80 km/h highway.