The South East Cornerstone Public School Division is making changes to how they handle bus cancellations. A note was sent electronically to parents who have children attending one of the schools in the system to inform them of the change.

Under the old system, a bus cancellation would impact students for the whole day, explained Andy Dobson, the manager of facilities and transportation with SECPSD.

“What’s happened in the past when the route was cancelled in the morning, due to weather, road conditions, visibility or whatever the bus driver deemed unsafe, the afternoon route was also cancelled,” said Dobson, describing the old policy. “What we’ve done is we’ve taken that out, so if a morning route is cancelled, the afternoon route is not cancelled.”

The reason for the change is to allow for conditions to improve as the day goes on. Dobson pointed to examples where the skies were clear after a morning storm, but the buses had been cancelled. In situations like that, the onus would entirely be on the parents for the transportation of their students to and from school.

With the changes made to the policy, a determination will be made around noon if the routes will be cancelled for the afternoon. If the conditions have improved, the buses will be able to drop students off as they normally would.

If for some reason the afternoon route would need to be cancelled as well, the SECPSD would notify parents of the changes, including using media.

You can always check if there are any school bus cancellations on Discover Estevan.