Some students in Thompson got a day off school Jan. 29-30 when Division scolaire franco-manitobaine (DSFM) cancelled buses and classes at all its schools outside of Winnipeg, including La Voie du Nord in Thompson.
DsFM secretary-treasurer Serge Bisson said the criteria the division uses include temperature and road conditions.
“When it gets colder than -45 degrees with the windchill, that’s when we start looking at either cancelling buses or straight out cancelling school,” Bisson said. “When the roads aren’t accessible, when there’s lots of snow ….in different areas we've got a lot of gravel roads to travel so depending upon the direction of the wind it can create big snow banks. If it’s not easily passable and buses can become stuck then that becomes a danger so that’s when we also look at cancelling buses.”
The division also looks at what other school divisions in the areas where it has schools are doing. Today, Bisson said, with all of Manitoba under an extreme cold warning, it seemed easier just to make a blanket decision, even if the classes were still going on in the School District of Mystery Lake.
“Just trying to manage where we’re just stopping buses, where we’re closing and so on at six in the morning, it just seemed smart to close all the schools outside of Winnipeg and cancel busing within the city,” said Bisson. “[Other times] It’s been cold in Thompson, close to -45 or lower, and we haven’t cancelled anything just because the hardy folks in Thompson seem to be more used to it.”
First Student Transportation, which provides buses for DSFM, has one of its drivers check early every school morning to see if side roads are passable and all the roads are in working condition.
“We try to do the call before 6:30 in the morning so that folks can rearrange their day to make it work,” said Bisson.
DSFM transportation cancellations or delays are posted on the division’s websiteand communicated via their Twitter account @DSFM_ALERTE
The SDML does not cancel classes on account of temperature, said co-superintendent Angele Bartlett, though schools were closed in March 2017 when a late-winter blizzard made road conditions treacherous and drifting snow blocked school entrances and exits. She said that while weather like Manitoba is currently experiencing is an anomaly for much of the province’s south, those in the north are used to it.
“This is a pretty regular occurrence for us here,” she said, adding that parents can exercise their own discretion regarding whether it is too cold to send their children to school.
Cancelling classes creates a different set of problems as well.
“Parents have to go to work,” said Bartlett, and may have to scramble to find child care if schools are closed.
Outdoor activities at SDML schools, including recess, are cancelled when the temperature or windchill hits -30 degrees Celsius.
