According to an email sent to parents, several drivers submitted their resignations in the 48 hours before the first day of class on Tuesday. Schools affected included Beaverly Primary School, Prince George Secondary School, Shas Ti Kelly Road Secondary School, DP Todd Secondary School and Heritage Elementary School. School District 57 Superintendent Cindy Heitman said four routes had to be canceled, affecting up to 80 students in several parts of the city. “It’s disappointing news and not how we envisioned it on the first day of school,” Heitmann said. Hello pic.twitter.com/c7wCN9eOB7 —@ladyheatherlee
“A lot of confusion”
The cancellations involve First Student, which provides school bus services and was awarded the school bus contract for Prince George in June. According to its website, First Student provides school transportation for K-12 students throughout North America. In an email to parents, the company blamed the cancellations, in part, on “the continued shortage of school bus drivers” across the continent. “For the past three months, we have been working to secure drivers for all School District 57 routes and are nearing the number needed to serve all families,” the email read. “Unfortunately, we’ve had a number of drivers who were committed to running routes pull out in the last 48 hours.” When First Student took over the school bus contract for Prince George, it advertised its newest buses equipped with GPS devices that provide real-time communication in the event of late arrivals or delays as a key feature. However, several parents say they were not notified of the cancellations until early Tuesday morning. Pupils at Shas Ti Kelly Road Secondary School were affected by school bus driver shortages on the first day of the new school year. (Andrew Kurjata/CBC) Shannon Zwiers, who has a daughter in the 10th grade, said she had to call into work late Tuesday morning because of the shift and then leave in the middle of the day to pick her up again. “Communication was kind of all over the place,” Zwiers said. “There is a lot of confusion — we didn’t see a bus this morning and I haven’t had time to make alternative arrangements for school transport.” Many parents in other parts of Canada have also been frustrated by school bus outages, with students in northwestern Ontario and Ottawa, for example, left to find their own way to school on Tuesday due to driver shortages. The school district says it continues to work with First Student to ensure transportation is available to all students enrolled in school bus service, including adjusting stops to existing bus routes.
