N.B. family waiting 2 months — and counting — for promised school bus
Barb Bouchard's children must be driven from Minto area to Fredericton to attend French school each day.
When Barb Bouchard's family made the decision to move from Oromocto to Grand Lake, making sure her daughters would still have access to a bus to get to their French school in Fredericton, about 50 kilometres away, was imperative.
So Bouchard says she took the necessary steps, confirming in advance they would be eligible for transportation.
With that, the family sold their house and made the move to the Minto area.
Bouchard contacted the Department of Education and the Francophone South school district and arranged for her two girls to get to École Les Éclaireurs.
But on Aug. 29, only a few days before the first day back for students, she was asked to drive her daughters, who are six and nine, for the first week of school because a bus wasn't available yet.
That one week has now become two months, and she said the few updates she's received about the situation haven't instilled a lot of confidence.
"About 5½ weeks ago, I was told they'd have a bus within two weeks, and we were just waiting for them to get the route sorted out. They were going to incorporate another subdivision, I think, that maybe is a little bit further from the school, into our kids' route," Bouchard said in an interview with Information Morning Fredericton.
"And then the two week mark came and went, and I never heard anything in terms of an update from them, and I sent a few more emails before I ever reached out to [CBC].
"And really it's been radio silence, and we're just driving our kids every day."
Barb
Bouchard is seen here with her husband, Kevin, and their two daughters.
Bouchard says she was offered a taxi to take her kids to school, but
because they are six and nine years old, she wasn't comfortable putting
them in a cab for 40 or more minutes each way on their own. (Tori Claire Photography/Submitted by Barb Bouchard)
Bouchard said if she knew this was going to be the case, "I can say probably about 90 per cent sure I would not have moved."
At the very least, she said if she had known earlier in the summer, there may have been more time to prepare a little better.
Bouchard is a nurse and her husband is in the military. She said she used most of her emergency leave while her husband was deployed, leaving her with no flexibility for the rest of the year. And while the people at Base Gagetown, where her husband works, have been accommodating, it doesn't always work out.
For example, on Monday morning, Bouchard said her husband was out on field training so she had to drive their children to school in Fredericton — after working a night shift — instead of getting the sleep she needed.
"We're making it work, but just barely."
I know you can't make drivers, you know, pop out of thin air, but obviously they need to make some changes in order to serve the population that they're mandated to support.
- Barb Bouchard, mother of two
The Fredericton and Oromocto regions have seen busing challenges over the past while, with school bus cancellations and delays becoming a daily issue.
In a statement, the Francophone South district said it apologizes for the inconvenience, but couldn't comment on specific cases to respect confidentiality.
"Our District is currently facing a shortage of school buses, particularly in the Fredericton area. While we are expecting additional buses, at this time, the number of routes in that area exceeds the available fleet," the statement said.
It went on to say that the district remains in close contact with the Department of Education to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.
CBC News contacted the Department of Education, which said transportation is a district responsibility and it would not be commenting on the matter.
Francophone South said the school transportation team explores several options for transporting students, such as contracts with taxi services and agreements to reimburse parents who need to drive their children.
It said it does not track the number of students without a regular bus route because "alternative transportation options are provided to ensure the best possible service for our students."
Bouchard said she was offered a taxi to take her kids to school, but because they are six and nine years old, she wasn't comfortable putting them in a cab for 40 or more minutes each way, especially without proper booster seats.
The Anglophone West School District said in an email that not having bus routes for students was not an issue, although the district does consistently struggle with cancelled buses, citing a shortage of casual bus drivers when there are multiple absences.
On Oct. 3, Bouchard received a response from the Education Department's pupil transportation co-ordinator and was told the district had advised the department that a bus route was created but a driver was still needed for the route.
It's becoming increasingly more difficult for Bouchard and her husband to accommodate driving their kids each day, she said, and she hopes there will soon be a solution, given the promise that was made when they moved.
"I mean, they told us they would have one for us," she said.
"I know you can't make drivers, you know, pop out of thin air, but obviously they need to make some changes in order to serve the population that they're mandated to support."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Information Morning Fredericton
This is news?
Denis Reagan
Reply to David Amos
Nothing is happening across the pond with Chuck and the gang. Well, nothing as exciting as telling us about their new shoes etc..
Carly Wattson
Reply to Denis Reagan
Mesmerized…
Deja Vu Anyone?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/french-immersion-francophone-school-district-asd-1.4814847
David Amos
Reply to David Amos
If anyone wishes to recall at the time I was running in Sussex during the 2018 New Brunswick general election Little Lou often teases me that I only got 14 votes However I did talk to one of the parents about that nonsense and decided to not to become involved
Denis Reagan
Reply to David Amos
Wha hail! Yogi Berra said it as it were in his time - deja vu all over again? Rite smart guy.
David Amos
Higgy is still the Premier until November 2nd
Methinks he could order his Minister to fix this with a stroke of a pen N'esy Pas?
Denis Reagan
Reply to David Amos
"N'esy Pas?"
I usually refrain from correcting spelling or grammar, I think it's rude, but your "N'esy Pas?" is being overused without being corrected. Merci!
David Amos
Content Deactivated
Reply to Denis Reagan
Who are you to correct my Chiac and not my English as well?
Denis Reagan
Reply to David Amos
"Chiac"? Never rode that horse.
Jos Allaire
Reply to David Amos
I nver heard anyone using this term, except you.
David Amos
Reply to Jos Allaire
Say it as you read it
David Amos
Reply to Denis Reagan
Bingo
Reply to SW Home
Reply to David Amos
Reply to David Amos
Reply to Danny Sterns
Reply to Chuck Gendron
Iam Noone
"Bouchard said she was offered a taxi to take her kids to school, but because they are six and nine years old, she wasn't comfortable putting them in a cab for 40 or more minutes each way, especially without proper booster seats." But you have no problem letting them ride in a school bus with no booster seats not seat belts? Ya, ok.
Denis Reagan
Reply to Iam Noone
Back in Dodge they had none of them buckle to the saddle laws.
David Amos
Content Deactivated
Reply to Iam Noone
Why is it that I don't believe that is your name?
David Amos
Reply to Iam Noone
Bingo
I was promised before the election and by the new Liberal leader an immediate tax cut on the HST on my hydro bill . The day after she got elected she changed her mind . No tax cut for anyone over the coming cold winter months , the months where we pay the most HST . Anyone surprised ????
Reply to Jos Allaire
Small wonder that so many don't vote
15,000 taken from our wallets in bonus money is not enough , gotta add another 48,000 annually taken outta our wallets .
David Amos
Content Deactivated
Reply to Lou Bell
Enjoy the new mandate
David Amos
Reply to Lou Bell
Bingo
Reply to Lou Bell
Most concerning thing about this is that it's being done all over the province . Just a couple or 3 years ago there was the story of a family ( or was it 2 ) in the Jemsg area where 4 or 5 kids not only had to be picked up at the end of their road by a private vehicle , but it was expected they were to be picked up down the road , which apparently was mostly inaccessible . All to be hauled off to a Francophone school , I believe in Oromocto .
David Amos
Content Deactivated
Reply to Lou Bell
This nonsense has been ok for Higgy for many years Why complain now?
David Amos
Reply to Lou Bell
Bingo
John Montgomery
One thing I expect to get better under the Liberals.
I knew many people who had their jobs cut when Higgs came to town. Minimum pay/minimum staff was the goal.
David Amos
Content Deactivated
Reply to John Montgomery
Everybody knows your agenda
Jerry Dion
Reply to John Montgomery
So the liberals promised wage increases for school bus drivers?
Ronald Miller
Reply to John Montgomery
Sure ya did.
Lou Bell
Reply to John Montgomery
Overstaffed and overpaid . Those Liberals had their freebee jobs from the liberals cut , saving taxpayers needless expense , And as we've seen from the liberals , more insiders getting needless jobs will happen again . Maybe they just shouldn't hire their indiders who are not need .
David Amos
Reply to John Montgomery
Bingo
Denis Reagan
Reply to Lou Bell
And go the alliance-reform-con way by reducing the middle class and getting those bucks to the 1%ers. Amazing how Tory voters never get to realize that.
John Montgomery
Reply to Jerry Dion
Liberals understand that you need to pay people to attract good workers, rather than nickle and diming everything and wondering why things don't work out.
The sort of issue you would want to see the Liberals move on
David Amos
Reply to james bolt
Wouldn't that be special?
Mack Leigh
Okay , have some people gone insane with their entitled mindset in this province. We have people living on the streets, people eating out of garbage bins, thousands of our children going to bed hungry every day yet we , the taxpayers should pay out thousands per year to provide transportation for two, yes two, children , to attend a
french school..... Enough already....just enough. Move again only this time closer to the school of your choice.
John Montgomery
Reply to Mack Leigh
I'm guessing... you don't have French children?
David Amos
Reply to Mack Leigh
Amen
Ronald Miller
Reply to John Montgomery
He does appear to have common sense.
John Montgomery
Reply to Ronald Miller
Common sense is expecting him to 'cut' something that affects him. Of course everyone feels what the other person is getting can be cut. The problem is to agree on it.
Jos Allaire
Reply to Mack Leigh
Of course, but all the while our tax dollars are wasted on building covered arenas with artificial ice in every little town, university teams with huge buses to carry the elite players in every sport to events across the Atlantic provinces and Canada, building trails for off road vehicles and the list goes on. They are even talking about subsidising an asphalted place for folks to squeal and burn car tires on. This pales in comparison. - We have lost our compas a long time ago.
Matt Steele
What's the issue as they have been offered a taxi at taxpayer expense to transport two kids to , and from school . What is the difference between riding in a taxi and a bus other than a taxi is a lot more comfortable . Apparently they want booster seats for the kids , yet buses don't have booster seats .
David Amos
Reply to Matt Steele
Go Figure
Yawn...complain to French leaders.
David Amos
Reply to Lauren Foster
I concur
SarahRose Werner
"Bouchard said her husband was out on field training so she had to drive their children to school in Fredericton — after working a night shift" - Great. We have a driver who's liable to fall asleep at the wheel in a car with two small children. Great road safety, that.
Lauren Foster
Reply to SarahRose Werner
A bit dramatic...heres an idea. Dont move 50klms away. We all have choices..why do I have to pay for hers?
SarahRose Werner
Reply to Lauren Foster
The family did their due diligence. They asked the Dept of Education and the school district if there would be a bus, and they were told yes. If they had been told no, they wouldn't have moved.
Matt Steele
Reply to SarahRose Werner
They have been offered a taxi at taxpayer expense to transport two kids to , and from school . What is the difference between riding in a taxi and a bus other than a taxi is a lot more comfortable . Apparently they want booster seats for the kids , yet buses don't have booster seats .
Lauren Foster
Reply to Matt Steele
Imagine our costs for that! get it together OLA
Lauren Foster
Reply to SarahRose Werner
Lets hear about their due diligence..so far as i can see we will be paying for their kids to be transported by French Only drivers...if its a bus but they will let us pay 100klms a day five days a week for a cab. Utter insanity. Almost 500 dollars a week..or 2000 a month or...48,000 a year for cabs? Get real. Drop the OLA.
Pa Ess
Reply to Lauren Foster
Did you read the article?!
David Amos
Reply to Pa Ess
I did and I agree with Madame Foster's indignation
Bryan Jones
So why did they make the decision to move to a house 50km from the school they wanted to send their kids to? If you have kids that age then the number one requirement should be schools in the area, that's why areas with the best schools have the highest house prices. Is it because of the location of the parents workplaces? Still not a good enough reason as they're adults (allegedly) and can cope with such a daily journey. Perhaps they need to consider why they decided to have kids in the first place.
SarahRose Werner
Reply to Bryan Jones
Read the article. Before they moved, they checked to ensure that their daughters would have a bus in place for the trip. They did their due diligence.
Bryan Jones
Reply to SarahRose Werner
Please try reading the first line of my comment again. If you do then you will see that my argument is not about having a bus or any other form of transport available for their kids but the reasoning behind putting those kids through such a journey everyday.
SarahRose Werner
Reply to Bryan Jones
The reasoning is pretty clear. The kids are attending a French school, and one of them if six years old, i.e., in Grade 1. The French immersion program in Minto for Grades 1 and 2 was cancelled for this year.
Bryan Jones
Reply to SarahRose Werner
Okay, so you are telling me that the nearest house they were able to move to was 50km away from their school, there was nothing closer? I didn't realise the housing market was so bad in NB.
David Amos
Content Deactivated
Reply to Bryan Jones
Methinks so to speak you are flogging a dead horse N'esy Pas?
David Amos
Reply to Bryan Jones
Bingo
Daniel Franklin
Jobs simply don't pay enough. We have had back-to-back years of double digit inflation increases and the wages simply haven't kept up. I know of people in Saint John who have had their rent increase over 100% since 2021. What wage has increased in similar fashion? The cost of living has grown much faster than the wages have increased. Simple.
Matt Steele
Reply to Daniel Franklin
Probably more of a case that this is a " french " school bus , so the driver would have to be fluent in french ; so that might be hard to find in all English communities regardless of the pay scale .
Ronald Miller
Reply to Daniel Franklin
If you are referring to the inflation rate, we have not had double digit inflation since 1982. Over the last 2 years the inflation rate has declined, not increased.
John Montgomery
Reply to Daniel Franklin
I knew someone who was interested in being a school bus driver. We figured, they have to mess up almost their own day from sun up to sun down and start so early, as well as dealing with kids in a very high responsibility job; they must get paid a decent wage. And it is barely exceeding minimum wage, with no benefits.
David Amos
Reply to Ronald Miller
I doubt it
Ronald Miller
Reply to John Montgomery
The average bus driver salary is 33% greater than minimum wage.
John Montgomery
Reply to Ronald Miller
33% of hardly anything is hardly anything.
Dianne MacPherson
Reply to John Montgomery
Suggest you do some research before
commenting on UNION wages.
Not to mention they have
the whole summer off !!
" Bouchard said she was offered a taxi to take her kids to school, but because they are six and nine years old, she wasn't comfortable putting them in a cab for 40 or more minutes each way, especially without proper booster seats. "
That says it all right there , Very doubtful if a school bus would have booster seats for kids , but maybe they are holding out for a limo , or maybe a helicopter . Sometimes you just have to shake your head and laugh......
John Montgomery
Reply to Matt Steele
School buses are meant for kids. They have a century of being designed to be as safe as possible.
David Amos
Reply to Matt Steele
Welcome back to the circus
Matt Steele
Reply to John Montgomery
Cars have undergone safety upgrades as well over the years , including safety belts , air bags , traction control , anti lock braking , etc....something that few school buses have .
John Montgomery
Reply to Matt Steele
But passenger car seats can only be made as safe as possible for an adult or for a child. Generally people consider it more practical to have the seats installed for an adult and buy a car or booster seat for a child to close the gap.
Malley became Speaker shortly after he bolted the party,only to rejoin the Progressive Conservatives prior to the 2006 provincial election.
That episode is one reason he said the province needs more MLAs without party ties."
FYI Health Care was the number one issue when I ran in Saint John Harbour against Dr Ed Doherty in 2006 ask Bill Fraser if you don't believe me