Students left stranded: School buses: Cost-saving measure leaves family worried.
Salmon Arm Observer
Sep 1 2009
By: Tracy Hughes

Changes to school bussing schedules mean adjustments for many parents and students in the school district, but one family is worried it could mean the loss of their income.

Sean Conroy's daughters, aged six and nine, live within the walking limits of Hillcrest School. The girls, however, attend Shuswap Day Care before and after school while their parents work. The day care is outside of the walking limits for the school and in previous years the girls have taken the bus to school, considered courtesy riders, because there was bus space available.

Now the re-alignment of the bus routes means to so-called courtesy riders, who aren't considered actually eligible for bus service based on their address, are no longer allowed to access the service - even if they are cared for outside the walking limits during the day.

While Conroy says he and his wife can adjust their workdays to accommodate dropping the kids off at Hillcrest in the morning, they don't see how they can leave work each day to pick their daughters up at 2:10 p.m. and drop them off at Shuswap Day Care before returning to work to finish their shifts.

…. After contacting the school district, Conroy has been told they are on their own to work out the situation but said the issue can be brought before the school's transportation committee in the third week of September.

…. Conroy says the new policy is prejudicial towards working families who rely on daycare.

"In our situation, as with many others, is the fact that both my wife and I need to work to make ends meet. And while I am thinking about myself, I can not help but think about others, especially single parents, who are in this situation as well."….