Hectic first day of school in Renfrew County with no school buses

It was the first day of school for students and parents across Renfrew County Wednesday, and adding to the anxiety of a new school year was the fact that school buses are still not running.

There has been no progress in contract negotiations between the region's school bus operators and the Renfrew County Joint Transportation Consortium (RCJTC).

The two sides were last scheduled to meeting Tuesday afternoon. The RCJTC said it extended an offer of a follow up meeting with the school bus service companies later this week.

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It has left the transportation of students up to the parents, many of whom that are being forced to alter work schedules and arrange community carpools.

"I'm working right now, and I'm on my way to work," said parent Tracey Pratt, who was dropping her child off at Walter Zadow Public School in Arnprior. "I'm a little warm because we parked far away and we walked just to avoid the cluster at the gate."

The town of Arnprior arranged for bylaw and police to patrol Ottawa Street traffic Wednesday morning, where both Walter Zadow Public School and Arnprior District High School are located.

"I'm sure over a thousand students, and however many parents are probably here right now," remarked parent Chelsea Lewis.

She credits communication from the school board in managing the mass influx of families dealing with a lack of school buses.

"There was a lot of emails, thankfully. And so we parked a ways away, probably like a ten-minute walk away and walked in."

"It's definitely a worry when you have that many pedestrians suddenly moving into an area, especially kids, it is a concern," said Arnprior town councillor Chris Couper.

"The clerk's office was very proactive about getting out and making sure that we had the presence out here. Our town operations staff as well, they put up some temporary parking restrictions along John Street to really keep that from being a bottleneck."

The Renfrew County Catholic District School Board (RCCDSB) says plans are in place to accommodate students who are unable to attend school in person due to the transportation disruption.

"During this first week, staff have been asked to determine which students have not attended school and if the reason for not attending is due to a lack of transportation, an individual plan will be put in place for the students to access their school work online, or through work packages if online access is not possible," the RCCDSB said in a statement.

The Renfrew County District School Board (RCDSB) also says it will accommodate students who cannot attend class because of transportation issues.

"Teachers are making accommodations for students who cannot get to school with synchronous remote learning (i.e. Google Classroom) or work packages that will be sent home for those with connectivity issues," the RCDSB said.

The school bus companies say even if a deal were to be reached imminently, buses would not be back on the road until October.

"I want it resolved," said Pratt.

"I can't foresee this carrying on. There will be a certain number of kids that will be at home, I'm certain, doing at home schooling. And that's not ideal."