The first day of school is looming over parents in Renfrew County, as school buses for the public and catholic school boards across the region are not running.
Contract talks remain at an impasse between the county’s school bus operators and the Renfrew County Joint Transportation Consortium (RCJTC), which leaves the families of 10,000 students who rely on bus transportation scrambling to find alternative solutions.
“There hasn’t been any significant movement that would lead to an agreement that would be in place yet. But the conversations are ongoing,” said Justin Jeffrey, manager of the RCJTC.
The latest round of talks between the two sides were planned for Tuesday afternoon.
In the interim, the RCJTC has secured just nine minivans operated by local taxi companies that will service limited routes across the county.
“Each minivan runs about twice, so it’s a little more than 150 kids who will have transportation tomorrow,” said Jeffrey.
Tuesday was a PA for the public and catholic boards in Renfrew County, meaning parents had one extra day after the Labour Day weekend to figure out school transportation for their kids.
“I will have three seats available to offer just Mondays and Tuesdays,” says parent Christine Sardari, who is attempting to organize a carpool from Arnprior to Renfrew.
Her son is starting Grade 9. If entering high school wasn’t change enough, she says the transportation schedule and her job clash, altering his schedule even more.
“My son will have to stay with my sister in Renfrew for the rest of the week.”
“I have to go to work for the rest of the week, so I don’t have a way for him to get to Renfrew.”
Sarah Brown is in a similar carpool scenario, coordinating with fellow families in White Lake looking to get their kids into Arnprior.
She is worried what the traffic congestion will be like as hundreds of families drop their kids off at the same time.
“We went for a drive yesterday to plan out how far he can go from school, that we can drop him off so he can walk safely to school,” she tells CTV News Ottawa. “We don’t want to go anywhere near it.”
Brown says her son’s catholic school issued specific instructions for parents who will be navigating the chaos.
“We got an email saying this is what it is. Don’t get out of your vehicles, just say goodbye. Don’t get out of your vehicles.”
Alan Jackson, a spokesperson for the county’s bus operators says even if a contract were to be hashed out between the two sides in the coming days, school buses would not be back on the roads until October.
“I’m not planning on any end date to that,” says Brown. “So I’m just going day by day.”