‘There wasn’t a bus in sight’: Medicine Hat parent concerned about school bus arrivals

This has lead to her driving her son to school on multiple occasions, after extended waits.

Bignell said calls to Southland Transportation didn’t match up to what she felt was happening.

“A couple time they didn’t show up and the one time she told me he was late by about 10-15 minutes,” Bignell said.

“But I told her, I never seen [the bus], when I left to go drop him off, there wasn’t a bus in sight,” she added.

“When you’re sitting in the car with your child waiting for 20 minutes and they’re not there. I don’t know what to tell you.”

According to Arjan Slagmolen, regional director for Southern Alberta with Southland Transportation, there are not staffing issue in the Medicine Hat area and he is aware of only one route that doesn’t have a permanent driver.

Slagmolen adds that whenever dispatch is made aware of a delay of 10 minutes or more they will put it into the system.

“Which populates into my school bus monitor,” Slagmolen said.

“Parents also have access to my bus stop app, which is fed by my school bus monitor,” he added.

“Parents can sign up for notifications, whether through the app or through the website.”

Bignell was unaware of the app before people on social media brought it to her attention.

Slagmolen adds with bus cancellations the school is notified, who will then let the parents know.

The my school bus monitor website will also advise of cancellations.

“In a perfect world, the driver is aware as he’s coming across those delays, and notifies dispatch and updates the system,” Slagmolen said.

“What we always recommend is that, especially in extreme weather, extreme cold, that children are not left alone at the stops.”

Slagmolden adds that whether a bus driver is given a new route they will generally drive the route at least once without pickups prior to doing it regularly.

He also states that there is a learning curve when a driver learns a new route, but believes that they will become familiar with it quick, especially if there are limited stops.

“I think buses having GPS is like now bringing that to light would be, I think beneficial, taking attendance of some sort,” Bignell said.

“I don’t know if they do that,” Bignell added.

“Them radioing to Southland saying I’ve arrived at a destination, I’m leaving a destination to make sure no stops are being missed.”

Slagmolden said it’s up to the school board to provide tablets if they are being utilized for attendance and their route.

“One of the challenges we have is that obviously, we’re very concerned about electronic devices while driving,” Slagmolden said.

“It has to be a tested and approved method, where it has to be programmed,” he added.

“The screen actually goes black when they drive, so that they can’t be referencing an electronic device while they’re driving.”

Slagmolden adds that attendance is taken by the bus drivers in the Medicine Hat area in the morning and afternoon.

“So once a child does or doesn’t arrive at school, when they take attendance at school is the point where they would identify and, you know, I think most schools have their attendance notification systems,” Slagmolden said.

“Because obviously, when we’re picking up kids, we don’t know if they’re being driven to school, whether they’re sick that day,” he added.

“So it’s really the attendance system at the school that would trigger a notification to the parents.”

by Jesse Gill

‘There wasn’t a bus in sight’: Medicine Hat parent concerned about school bus arrivals

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