WEYBURN — School buses reign supreme when the subject of transportation enters the conversation around the conference room tables in the Â鶹´«Ã½AV East Cornerstone Public School Division.
The June 17 general business session then was no different in that regard as Jesse Forsyth, west area transportation foreman, delivered the detailed information regarding bus routes, drivers and passengers to the division’s board members during their afternoon open business meeting.
The number of students being transported to and from schools in the SECPSD has increased just slightly to 4,680 compared with the 4,593 that were riding the buses in June 2024, Forsyth said. This represents about 55 to 60 per cent of the division’s approximately 8,100 students.
Two more urban routes have been added to the fleet, one each in Estevan and Weyburn, making the total 157 heading into the next academic year.
There are still some unfilled routes due to lack of drivers and they include two routes in the Carlyle area, and one each serving Arcola, Oungre (Lyndale School) and Redvers. Those numbers and locations do change, it was noted.
Routes that had to be temporarily cancelled due to mechanical issues in the past six months amounted to 89 half-days, he said, which was significantly more than what was traditionally realized.
Cancellations due to weather-related issues were also recorded from the January 2025 report that referred to the fall and early winter season versus the January to June period in the current report.
The lack of a substitute driver meant the loss of 173 half-day routes and 692 full days, Forsyth said. These numbers were up from the 114 and 558 days noted in the first half of the school year.
The average rural one-way ride time remained around 48 minutes, with the longest one-way rural rides being targeted as around 90 minutes on the Estevan/Torquay and the Weyburn/Oungre routes.
The main problematic issue continues to be a lack of bus drivers in pretty well all areas, he said.
Since the last report, it was noted that there had been one bus driver retirement, one termination and no resignations or new hires.
