Since April 2024, students in Tatla Lake have been juggling what they thought would be a temporary bus route adjustment due to staffing issues. Now, parents are being told changes to the bus route will become permanent as of Feb. 24, 2025.
"We feel pretty forgotten,” said Jessica Potvin, president of the Parent Advisory Council (PAC) for Tatla Lake Elementary and Junior Secondary School, which is part of School District 27 (SD 27). Located in the West Chilcotin between Bella Coola and Williams Lake, the school hosts 22 students and is described by Potvin as fantastic, with great staff and a principal who goes “above and beyond.”
But Potvin is frustrated, not only because of the complications which the new bus route presents, but because of the lack of communication and transparency leading up to the decision.
“It’s just tragic that the entire community wasn’t involved in these changes...there’s been no public consultation on this,” she said. Tragic, because Potvin said the changes will have a real impact on the community, something which she feels the district has overlooked.
“Our school is the hub of the community, it is the lifeline,” Potvin said. She said the new bus routes are not a functional solution, and the barriers they introduce will discourage people from moving to the community or continuing to live there.
The changes combine the school’s only two bus routes, which head 40 to 45 kilometres in opposite directions, under one bus driver. Potvin said school ends at 3 p.m., yet some students arrive home as late as 5 p.m., and when the roads are particularly bad, 5:30 p.m.
To accommodate the changes, students on Route 32 have been arriving 30 minutes early in the morning and leaving on time after school, while students on Route 38 arrive 30 minutes late in the morning and depart an hour late in the afternoon, thus requiring additional supervision. The changes, however, do not affect instructional times, said the school’s principal Kimberley Ikebuchi.
“Every effort has been made to minimize the impact on students,” Ikebuchi wrote to Black Press.
In an email responding to simplymastery’s questions, the district’s superintendent Cheryl Lenardon said these wait times are not unusual.
“With our vast and complex transportation service there are varying wait times across schools similar to those in this situation,” Lenardon said. “Supervision involving extending existing staff is a practical solution.”
But Potvin said the changes are not a long-term solution.
“It’s a really, really demanding day for our kids, and it doesn’t need to be that way,” she said. The long days mean families are burnt out, too tired to engage in extracurricular activities in the evenings and even over the weekend, Potvin explained. This is an added barrier to the already sparse access to extracurriculars in the rural community.
Other concerns expressed by the parents involve safety, as long commutes mean children are getting on and off the bus in the dark, as well as potentially exhausting the bus driver. And with only one driver on hand, there is no transportation available when the driver can’t make it to work.
Potvin said families have been approaching the district and principal about their concerns since May 2024, and feel they have been dismissed.
Lenardon said the first point of contact for parents’ concerns is the school’s principal, whom she said has the necessary resources and capabilities to meet the students’ needs.
“I am confident any concerns parents and caregivers have can be addressed...The school is doing a good job of providing appropriate supervision and learning and works closely with families,” Lenardon wrote.
Potvin argued efforts to resolve their concerns at the school level were not effective, thus they turned to the district. But she said communications with the district and board of education were returned with silence, or sent parents in circles.
“We reached out to the transportation department and were told it was our responsibility to find a driver,” Potvin recalled. When a community member set out to acquire the needed qualifications, apply for the position and even travel to Williams Lake to check in on the status of the job, Potvin said the district was not responsive.
“We were told this is going to be temporary...now there’s no longer a posting for the position.”
Lenardon said the district considered hiring a new bus driver, but there was little interest in the position due to the region’s limited population.
“Consolidating routes has become a necessary and appropriate measure to ensure that all students continue to have access to safe and reliable transportation. We are committed to monitoring the situation and will make adjustments as needed to best serve our students and community,” she wrote.
Potvin said there is still time to find a solution which works for both parents and the district. The school’s PAC has written a letter to the superintendent in hopes of collaborating towards a solution.
The district has been making adjustments after conducting a review of its transportation system for the first time in 10 years. Changes made in the Fall for 108 Mile Ranch and Horse Lake areas received push back from parents, leading to a reinstatement of certain routes and stops in January 2025.
