Riverside Consolidated School parents host bus tour in bid to avoid closure
K-5 students in Riverside-Albert face 30 km commute to Hillsborough if local school closes
The bus didn't pick up any students, but the chartered bus did stop at each child's home for a minute, to replicate the time the trip will take.
"I actually did grow up in Alma, and I did endure the bus ride. And it's an experience, but it's not something we're willing to put our children as young as four years old on to experience," said organizer Dan Sinclair.
A review by the District Education Council in the Anglophone East School District is underway to determine the future of the K-5 school in Riverside-Albert.
Older students currently have to take the bus to Hillsborough, but elementary-aged children stay closer to home. If Riverside Consolidated is closed, they will also be sent to Hillsborough Elementary, about 30 kilometres away.
Many parents, like Charlene Butland, are against the change.
"If my son has a problem now, then I'm five minutes from school. I can call my mother-in-law or my mother, I can get a drive. But a half an hour, 45 minutes away, no I can't, I just can't do it," she said.
Butland doesn't like her options. "Home school or move, which we don't want to."
The Riverside Consolidated Parent Support Committee says it will make a presentation on April 14 to the District Education Council (DEC). It will make a decision near the end of April.