By Tina Comeau
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
As things stood last week, the Tri-County Regional School Board intends to advertise its bus routes by the first of August, including the new routes being set up in the town to accommodate the bussing of Grade 7 and 8 students to and from Maple Grove.
At a June 8 committee meeting, members of the Tri-County Regional School Board were presented with a report on the planning for the busing that is required for the reconfiguration of Maple Grove and Yarmouth Junior High schools.
Taking into consideration the demographics, Dale Royal, the board’s coordinator of transportation, said the transportation department will be implementing four new bus stops within the town for the 2010 school year.
“The report shows you a number of stops that at this point would be a minimum for those students, I think I can do better, but that’s up to you folks,” Royal told board members.
The stops identified in the report are tentative because the board has yet to approve any stops, but they are listed as taking place in the following neighbourhoods: Argyle Street/Havelock Drive, Albert/William streets, Elm/Brunswick streets and Herrington Avenue/Brunswick Street ext.
The Yarmouth junior high and high school on Parade Street will also serve as a pick-up point for students travelling to Maple Grove.
Over the summer the bus routes will be advertised on the board’s website, through the media and via pamphlets. This information won’t be completed in time to inform the public about the bussing prior to the end of the school year this month.
The transportation department says it cannot accommodate the transportation of students in Grades 7 and 8 with its current fleet of buses, therefore an extra bus will be required. Royal said the purchase of an extra bus will not be necessary. The department will keep a bus that had been slated as surplus so any added cost is not a significant factor he said.
Royal said the recent orientation days at Maple Grove and Yarmouth Junior High were a good trial run of how busing will work, although it was not exactly what will be rolled out for the fall. It was similar, Royal said, but again, things have not yet been carved in stone.
Still, the days did give the transportation department a good sense of the travel times from the town to Maple Grove said Royal.
“I believe that we can collectively pull this off, effectively, efficiently and quite frankly without any hiccups,” Royal said.
