CALGARY -- Like many parents, Jordan Grose has some concerns about sending his children back to school in September. But one of his biggest questions is about changes to his son’s bus stop location.
“His bus stop is three kilometres in the opposite direction, when our school is only two and a half kilometres [the other] way,” Grose says.
The family lives in the community of Haysboro. They have three children in three different schools within the Calgary Board of Education (CBE), with their son in an Alternative Program at Willow Park School.
But the bus stop he is assigned to for this school year is in another community, west of the family’s home in Oakridge.
“This, obviously, doesn’t make any sense at all,” Grose says.
“(CBE) said the routes are fixed, don’t complain, you’re stuck with it. It’s pretty upsetting for both ourselves and our son.”
The CBE says students in Alternative Programs use ‘congregated stops,’ which allows the small number of children who are spread out in multiple communities to come to one location to catch a bus.
“When CBE selects a congregated stop location we look at a number of factors including student safety, ease of access for the bus, public space for students to gather and available parking for parents,” reads a statement from the CBE.
The school board adds the routes chosen will not be changed and that families have until the end of September to opt out and get their bus fees back.
