Preparations for the opening of École Discovery Trails (EDT) in the fall, Transportation Supervisor Adam Adamson said each of the over 2200 students have been considered for bussing eligibility.   

"For next year, our in-town bussing, we'll see a complete overhaul in order to incorporate this new school within our community. There will be lots of new changes with things such as routes, bus times, additional bus stops, to newly eligible students, as well as students who will no longer be eligible for bussing. The eligibility for bussing is based on the shortest walking distance from the student's home to the attending school being 1.6 kilometers or more, bussing won't be available still for students, that will be attending the School of Choice." 

 He noted that communication will be sent to families to navigate these changes soon. 

"We're glad to say that we're in the final stages of completing next year's bussing schedule, based on the information that we have thus far. We'll be reaching out to the families of all eligible bussing students only, within the next couple of weeks by e-mail. For those families that are expecting to receive this information, please make sure that your child's school knows of the current and up-to-date contact information, to make sure we are sending this information to the right addresses."

 

WSD Transportation Supervisor Adam AdamsonWSD Transportation Supervisor Adam Adamson

 

Adding to expect changes to continue over the summer. 

"Throughout the summer, we will see some changes with families moving in, as well as out of our community and this will also affect our bussing schedules. So, in order to keep up to date with the latest busing schedules, please visit the Western School Division website to see a detailed bus list with stops, times, and the order in which those buses pick up students on that particular route. The latest and finalized updates will be, I would say, the week commencing the second week of August. That will then be the most up-to-date info."  

WSD currently has a 26-bus fleet, including two accessible buses. Two more vehicles will be added this summer or early this fall. Currently, there are 16 buses used daily to pick up and drop off students. Twelve rural buses and four within the City of Morden, next year, it will be eleven rural and five urban buses routes.  

"Every single one of our existing city routes will have at least two runs in the morning and two runs in the afternoon. The way it's looking, two of our five city routes will have three runs in the morning and then also three runs in the afternoon. And above all, we try to improve on our timing based on last year's busing, which wasn't great, but it was a necessary evil. We're glad to announce that a lot of the buses will be dropping off kids at least five to ten minutes earlier than what they have been in this current school year." 

Families are strongly urged to ensure their contact information and addresses are up to date with their child(ren)'s school(s) to ensure plans and information are given promptly. All the relevant and up to date bussing information for the 2024/25 school year will be available on WSD website from Monday August 12th, 2024. 

WSD wishes everyone a happy and safe summer holiday!