School buses will be running on the roads of Grey and Bruce counties when classes start this September.
The Bluewater District School Board and the Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board announced late Thursday that they’ve come to an agreement with local school bus operators.
“We are glad to confirm that an agreement in principle has been reached, and student transportation will proceed as normal for the start of the school year in September,” the school boards said. “We recognize the uncertainty this situation may have caused, and we appreciate families’ continued patience.”
Earlier this week, School Bus Ontario, which represents Ontario’s school bus operators, cautioned parents that if a deal wasn’t struck by Friday, they would need to find other ways to get their kids to school on the first day.
The six bus operators in Grey Bruce within the Student Transportation Service Consortium handle over 300 routes. They transport around 16,000 students every day.
This group has been without a contract since late June.
Details about the new agreement haven’t been shared yet. However, both school boards confirmed that negotiations with bus operators were conducted with support from the Ministry of Education.
“Throughout this process, we worked to balance the cost pressures facing operators with our responsibility to manage public funds responsibly,” the boards added.
Now that buses are set for opening day, parents should complete all necessary back-to-school transportation tasks as soon as possible. This includes logging into the Edulog Parent Portal app and opting in for transportation for each child. If not done, students won’t have a bus route assigned to them, according to the boards.
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