Photo Courtesy of Southland Transportation

By Chris Brown

Shared responsibility

School busing a smooth ride in first week back

Sep 4, 2020 | 4:27 PM

Busing in the first week of school has been a smooth ride in the local districts, even with the new challenges COVID-19 brings.

The regional director for southern Alberta for Southland, which handles school busing in the area, says the work put in over the summer developing the plan, working with the school board and the enhanced communication with drivers have all made for a relatively easy time.

Craig Loose says the responsibility for safety is shared by Southland, the school boards and parents and students, all flowing from the provincial health orders and guidelines.

“From our perspective, what we’ve done on the buses is there’s a daily symptom screening for drivers. They’re supplied and trained with various forms of PPE. Masks that they have to wear, face shields that are to be worn during loading and unloading procedures,” explains Loose. “We’re thoroughly disinfecting the bus services twice a day after the am and the pm routes. Working with the school boards on assigned seating plans and all those elements that fall within what the provincial guidelines are.”

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That assigned seating helps with safety, as physical distance isn’t always possible on the bus.

That’s where the students and the student plans and the assigned seating come into play,” Loose says. “With the plans with the assigned seating at least you’re creating a microcosm of a cohort on a bus so they are around the same children all the time.”

Assigned seating is still being established on some buses, says Loose, and all parties are ready to make any changes needed.

“Obviously it’s a fluid situation so if there are change son protocols from the province we would have to react, if there’s changes on registrations and what the routes look like. We change those with the school boards on an ongoing basis in a normal year,” he says, adding Southland is doing everything it can to meet what the provincial regulations are and “everything that we can possibly go beyond as well.”