School Bussing Minister's Review - Question Period

MS. CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : My question is for the Minister of Education and Early Childhood Development. One morning last week, Darla Haverstock watched her child get on a school bus. An hour later, she received notification that her child was absent due to an apparent glitch in the parent notification system. In the days before that, the bus routes assigned for both of her children were getting them to school 15 to 30 minutes late each day.

Mr. Speaker, the minister has told this House that he is working with Stock Transportation in the regional centres but has not been at all clear about how he's working with parents. Again, I would like to ask the minister: How are parents being included in the department-led review of school busing?

HON. ZACH CHURCHILL » : Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the member's question. There are a number of unacceptable situations that are happening in our busing system, particularly here in HRM, ones that we have indicated to Stock Transportation need to be addressed immediately. More broadly, we know we have some work to do as a province to make sure we have the best practices so that each and every parent and student can rely on safe and timely service.

We will be engaging parents in these conversations through our SACs and their new enhanced role in the system. We'll have a survey that's available through the website of the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development so that they can provide us with direct feedback. We'll also be reaching out directly to principals through the newly established principals' association.

Those folks have invaluable information on the challenges that we experience in our schools, and this will be the first order of business for the provincial advisory council on education as well.

MS. CHENDER « » : Mr. Speaker, Nova Scotia's democratically elected school boards were not perfect, but they did hold public meetings that parents could attend. It's now two weeks into the school year, and the provincial advisory council on education - which the minister just referenced and has been talking about for many months now - still doesn't exist. When it does, the minister has said he has no plans for it to hold public meetings.

The minister's review of busing is happening inside the department without any consultation so far or indication that the findings will be shared. Parents are feeling frustrated and ignored. How does the minister expect parents to have confidence in decisions that are being made behind closed doors?

MR. CHURCHILL « » : In fact, we've been reviewing all the information that has been coming into the department and into our regions and being shared by our MLAs. These challenges date back four years, particularly in HRM when it comes to the challenges that parents have been experiencing, and I think that what parents' expectations are is that government address these situations so that we find results in achieving the changes that we want.

There are too many unacceptable situations where parents do not even know where their kids are. We need to change that. We are committed to fixing it and, with parents' help through the School Advisory Councils, through public consultation, through work with the principals and the Provincial Advisory Council, we are going to have answers to these questions and we are going to have a better system as a result.