This school year, students within the Simcoe County District School Board have seen more snow days than ever before, according to staff.
During their regular meeting earlier this month, trustees received an update on winter weather and snow days from superintendent of education Peter McLean, who oversees the transportation portfolio for the board.
“We have had a winter unlike any in my lifetime,” McLean told trustees. “Unfortunately, it has had an impact on our schools.”
As of Feb. 26, the Simcoe County public board has had nine full bus cancellation days this winter, and nine partial days where only certain zones – north, south, central or west – have been affected.
Because of the pile of snow days, the board altered the school schedule during exam time in January for students in the north and west zones to try to make up some time lost.
“The impact is significant in the north and the west. We have had 17 days in the north,” said McLean of the zone that includes Orillia schools.
Feb. 12 marked the first time this school year that all the Simcoe County public and Catholic schools were closed in addition to bus cancellations, due to a severe winter snowstorm that blanketed the region.
To put the numbers in perspective, McLean said Muskoka has had 13 full school closure days this year, and 27 partial snow days. Parry Sound has had 22 bus cancellations, while Grey-Bruce has had 25. He said Dufferin (10) and Durham (six) are also having a record number of snow days.
The Simcoe County Student Transportation Consortium determines whether to cancel buses during a call at 5 a.m. or earlier with representatives from the public and Catholic school boards.
“It is not done lightly. The consortium works hard to receive updates from municipalities in regards to road closures,” said McLean. “Every attempt (is made) to keep buses on the road and keep schools open.”
“The safety of the students is at the heart in every decision,” he said.
McLean said the consortium makes the decision based on road conditions at that time and based on how they are expected to progress throughout the day, and whether roads have been plowed.
This year alone, McLean said there have been 29 evening calls with the consortium as well to plan the next day, which is 10 more than has ever happened before at the board in one school year.
“That is significant in itself,” he said.
In response to a question from New Tecumseth trustee Sarah Beitz, McLean said neither school board has the ability to override a decision from the consortium – boards are only able to communicate that decision.
“Decisions are typically communicated between 6 and 6:30 a.m.,” he said. “I don’t have the ability to trump (those decisions). Their decision is what holds.”
Another factor taken into account is some bus routes are along rural backroads, many without sidewalks.
“I’ve lived in Orillia for a very long time, and half the roads right now; two cars cannot pass because there is so much snow,” said Orillia/Severn/Ramara trustee Jodi Lloyd. “When we look at bus cancellations, it’s not just about the bus going down the road.”
“We have young people who have to stand at the road and wait for the bus. It’s so much more than the bus just being able to drive,” she said.
McLean said the consortium only has the option to cancel entire zones (as opposed to certain routes or schools only). If one route is unsafe, the consortium will err on the side of caution and cancel the whole zone that day.
Lloyd said it has been a difficult winter all around.
“This has been like nothing we’ve had in decades,” she said.
McLean also talked about how hard it can be to, essentially, predict the future.
He pointed to one example from last week when the consortium made a decision to run buses that day, although there were some road closures across Simcoe County due to blowing snow that popped up throughout that day.
“Our conditions had shown they were appropriate for buses, but at the end of the evening we had 29 significantly late buses and 11 accidents,” he shared, which wasn’t just collisions between vehicles but also included buses sliding off the road.
When a collision or accident occurs, there are other factors at play as well, which include having to find another method to transport the students safely, and how to migrate kids safely from one bus to another to make that happen. Typically, when a collision occurs, students are expected to stay on the bus until relief comes, and must wait on the bus until police arrive and every student is checked for any potential injury.
“It has not been uncommon in some of these situations to have buses that are two to two-and-a-half hours late,” he said.
Innisfil trustee Donna Armstrong said that Landmark already has difficulty recruiting bus drivers, and adding treacherous driving as a risk of employment wouldn’t help with that.
“It’s just not worth it. We’re in the north. This is Canada. This is like a winter before the ’90s,” she said. “I really appreciate our bus drivers. We want to keep them.”
Midland/Penetanguishene/Tiny/Tay trustee Robin Talbot asked whether classes could be moved to Zoom on snow days as they were during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Superintendent of education Chris Samis reminded trustees that during the pandemic, the board had to make efforts to provide some students with devices as there are many who live in rural areas with poor internet connections, or who didn’t have their own devices at home. This is not something that could be accomplished for one-off snow days, he said.
“We would need to be figuring this out in October – not when we wake up in the morning and it’s snowing,” said Samis.