Parent Twyla Jensen of Middle Sackville has done a lot of waiting this week at the spot where her daughter is supposed to catch her bus in the morning.
“For my daughter's middle school bus, it hasn't showed up, so out of the seven days we've had a bus three days,” Jensen said.
When the bus did show up, Jensen says she stopped the driver to ask what was going on.
“I asked the bus driver on Wednesday why he didn't show up, and his response to that was ‘well, I was here there was nobody here,’” she said.
But Jensen says she tracked the bus through the bus planner website and saw the bus enter her neighborhood and leave again, without coming to her street and she told him so. He apologized, but she says he didn't return the next day.
Jensen has written to the Halifax Regional Centre for Education, Stock Transportation, and the Minister of Education and had received the same kind of answer echoed today.
“Ah, listen, we told them that there's been some unacceptable situations that have happened,” said Education Minister Zach Churchill.
Churchill confirmed a meeting between the department and the company took place Thursday afternoon.
“We're gonna get them there, we're working with the region and Stock to deal with the issues that they've been experiencing,” he said.
With concerns continuing to surface around school busing in the Halifax area, Stock Transportation held a job fair in Dartmouth here to try to hire more drivers.
Stock Transportation says it's always looking for drivers and the job fair isn't to address a particular shortage.
When asked about Jensen’s concerns - Stock said it “apologizes for the confusion” and that the situation will be “rectified for tomorrow.”
Whatever comes out of that meeting with between the Department of Education and Stock Transportation, parents like Twyla Jensen just want their children to be able to get to and from school safely and reliably -- sooner, rather than later.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Heidi Petracek.
