Back to School Transportation Information

Published: Monday, 24 August 2020 16:47

Last Updated on: 10th September 2020, 05:47 pm

 

New Updates, Procedures and Protocols

Transportation Start-up Delay

OSTA’s priority is creating a transportation environment where students can feel safe and limit the transmission of the virus to the extent possible. Additional planning is needed to plan routes while ensuring all safety measures meet and/or exceed the new Ministry guidelines.  Due to changing variables and models,  yellow bus service will be delayed until September 14.

Students on OC Transpo may take public transit as of September 3 and their Presto passes will be distributed through the school.  Students should visit plan.octranspo.com/plan to plan their trip to and from school.  Students assigned to vans and wheelchair buses will be contacted by their driver to confirm the date and time of their first pick up.

We encourage parents and guardians to sign up for email notification or follow up on Twitter and Facebook to receive the latest information.

During this time, parents will be expected to find their own means of transportation to school. It is recommended that parents and students use active transportation to get to school as much as possible.  Walking and rolling the whole way, or part of the way, will reduce traffic around the school and provide a mask-free experience.

Please see OSTA’s resources designed to help students who will be walking, rolling or being driven: Walking School Bus, Walk-a-Block, Walk&Roll Meetup, Walk to School Routes, and Pedestrian Safety Tips.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we work through this unprecedented back to school planning process.

 

Opting-Out of Transportation

If eligible students and their parents choose not to use OSTA’s transportation services, we ask that you opt-out as soon as possible here. This will assist OSTA, the School and Public Health to perform contact tracing on students who are actually riding the bus if a suspected case of COVID-19 is identified. Eligible students may opt back into the service at any time, although reassignment to transportation may take some time, depending on the volume of changes.

 

Empty Seats/Courtesy Seating Program Suspended

OSTA has suspended the Empty Seat/Courtesy Seating Program this year due to complex contact tracing protocols and physical distancing and will resume the program when it’s feasible to do so.