We are long time residents at kilometre 24 Annie Lake Road; off grid entrepreneurs with three kids that we have raised out here. For the last 13 years, our kids have bused into Whitehorse schools and bused home most days. We called the drivers on days when we were in town and picking up the kids or if the kids had different activities after school. This worked well, with few complications.
The Carcross road maintenance crews are great in keeping the Annie Lake Road in good condition, right to the Wheaton Bridge. Thank you.
A few weeks ago, I was informed that the bus will be discontinued past kilometre 14! I was told a variety of reasons, which changed every phone call.
A) Department of education needed to readjust the route schedule. And then…
B) The road was not safe past kilometre 14… worth a call to road maintenance crews, perhaps?
C) The drivers didn’t feel safe, as they had veered off the road several times….in 13 years? Other buses have certainly veered off the roads and bus routes were not cancelled! And then...
D) No cell service for emergencies… There are plenty of options to have an emergency phone without cell service! Standard bus sends school tour groups out this way regularly for kids on the farm tours and it is not an issue, ever.
The Department of Education is giving no attention to this major change and the impact that it is having on our kids' education. They are now missing one day a week. As a one car family, it is impossible to coordinate everyone’s needs and drive 10 kilometres (one way) twice a day to the bus stop at kilometre 14 (40 + kilometres a day), where the bus does come down the (poorly maintained and unsafe?!) Annie Lake Rd. The road conditions have not changed from the last 13 years to this year, nor from kilometre 14 to kilometre 24.
If Standard bus does not have enough drivers, it should not be the access to school for rural kids that pay that price.
This feels like passing the buck, that no one wants to take responsibility for this change, and that the reasons keep changing week to week. What is going on here? We have been going in circles, getting nowhere.
Let the kids get to school!
Carmen Perren
Annie Lake Road
