The busing situation for the Southeast Cornerstone Public School Division is looking good here in the Weyburn area.

This is according to Gord Husband, Deputy Director of Human Resources and Infrastructure with the Southeast Cornerstone Public School Division.

"We've definitely got most of our routes filled, but we're still trying to recruit sub bus drivers or casual drivers to fill in when folks are ill and can't come to work or have a leave of some sort." 

He said looking for substitute drivers has been an ongoing challenge. 

"When can't find subs, we have to shut down those roads for the day and that's an inconvenience for a bunch of families," explained Husband. "We do have some spares on our list, so it all depends on the demand of how many cancellations we have that day, but we're always trying to recruit more folks onto our casual list to help us when we have drivers that are not available."

"But we're feeling pretty fortunate that we've only got one vacant route in the school division right now, out in the Fillmore area. All the rest do have permanent drivers and in the couple that we didn't have permanent drivers on, we have enough subs to cover them off."

Husband said they also like to utilize the casual drivers when we have charter trips for the students. 

"Maybe there's a field trip that that requires some transportation, and that happens during the school day, we rely on our casual drivers to help pick those up as well."

He said the job is unique in that way, and there are certainly lots of opportunities for someone who wouldn't mind getting out onto the open road outside of the Weyburn routes. 

"We do see employees come and go as far as different opportunities in their working lives, so the flexibility with the bus drivers, to be able to bring their younger children with them on the route and stuff like that."

Husband noted that they try to ensure seating capacities are as full as possible, but safety is also a high priority.

Higher enrollment this year, he said, is a good problem to have in terms of busing, but they have gotten through the common challenges that occur at the beginning of a new school year.

"We work pretty hard with our bus drivers to communicate with all the people on their stops to to assist in making sure that our timing is as best we can," he noted. "Luckily we do that in the fall when the weather is good. 

So we're as on time as we possibly can be in the winters. But road conditions and trains and all those other factors play an impact on the timing of our bus routes."

"Now that we've got the busing hub at Legacy Park, it's amazing to see that many buses roll through that busing hub at the school, because it is a connection between us and and the Weyburn Comprehensive School, and then the French immersion program at APES, so there's there's a lot of moving parts to that and to to have that run smoothly has taken us some time, but I think we're getting closer and closer every year."

He said you can follow up-to-date busing information HERE and HERE.