MOOSE JAW — Holy Trinity Catholic School Division’s transportation department appears to lack enough bus drivers, considering the manager has jumped behind the wheel several times to ensure students make it to school.
Board trustees received a transportation accountability report during their March meeting, which looked at the division’s activities from Sept. 1, 2024, to Feb. 28, 2025.
The report showed that the organization transported 1,187 students during the first six months of the school year, which was consistent with the past three school years. Data from that period showed the division transported between 1,122 and 1,189 youths throughout those school years.
Furthermore, during the first half of the 2024-25 school year, Holy Trinity cancelled 70 routes — or 140 total runs — because of weather, whereas during previous years, the weather forced the cancellation of 56, 70 and 42 runs, the data showed.
Moreover, Chinook School Division, Holy Trinity’s partner in southwest Saskatchewan, was forced to cancel 86 routes — or 172 runs — during the past six months because of weather, the report said. Also, Prairie 小蓝视频 School Division, which covers 小蓝视频 Hill and rural transportation, cancelled 200.5 routes — or 401 runs — during the same period, mostly because of driver availability.
Meanwhile, Holy Trinity buses travelled 226.3 kilometres daily on regular routes in Moose Jaw north, while the average age of those buses was 8.1 years; buses on regular routes were on average 7.5 years of age, while the spare fleet’s age was on average nine years.
Also, the buses were full 87.6 per cent of the time, while the average run-time ride time in Moose Jaw was 29 minutes and the longest one-way ride time in the city was 38 minutes.
Curt Vany Parys, the division’s chief financial officer (CFO), said recruitment of bus drivers has been an issue because the marketing has been “tightening up.”
“Our bus supervisor … has actually been driving (a) bus on a fairly frequent basis the last little while, so (that’s) a cause for concern there in terms of needing to rebuild our substitute list,” he continued.
The report noted that the division has no temporary positions in place for this year, although it has interviewed five people who are willing to train for their S-class licence endorsement.
Meanwhile, the transportation manager has been learning how to use bus planning software, which has made the division more efficient in transporting students to schools, the CFO added. Specifically, the software tracks fuel management and ensures that buses drive the least number of kilometres possible during their routes.
The next Holy Trinity board meeting is Monday, April 14.
