By Staff
January 12th, 2017
BURLINGTON, ON
The nightmare is” said Halton District School Board Director of Education Stuart Miller, “for me to decide that the school buses should not run and then see a significant change in the weather hours later.”
Miller was explaining to school board trustees last night how the decision to cancel school bus service when the weather is bad.
Stuart takes those 5:30 am weather report phone calls.
“I got a phone call at around 5:30 (my wife remembers exactly what time the call came in) telling me that the weather reports were not good.
Miller then makes a number of call to other school board’s in the area to see what they have planned. He has to make a decision by 6:30 am and prefers to have made up his mind by 6:00 am.
“There is freezing rain in Toronto but the local spotters report nothing in Oakville or Burlington – but the reports have the weather heading west.
“So I decide that the roads are not good enough for safe passage and I cancel the service.
“And sure enough – it is close to balmy sunshine weather in the southern part of the region and blizzard like weather in the rural areas.”
Miller explained that his decision is based on what he determines to be in the best interests of the students and the men and women who have to drive those school buses.
Winter weather means slower bus service and at times a decision to cancel the service.
Many of the buses he explained have several runs – and if they are late completing one run the students are left standing in the cold for as much as half an hour while the bus drivers work with difficult roads.
So now you know – the decision gets made at the very top – and he gets that first call at about 5:30 in the morning.
