Changing school start and end time could address school bus issues, report says

Some elementary and secondary schools in Ottawa should be changing their start and end times to make the buses more efficient, according to a review conducted on behalf of the province.

The Ottawa Student Transportation Authority (OSTA) released Deloitte's review, and its response, on Wednesday.

Deloitte was hired by the Ministry of Education to review the OSTA, which manages student transportation for the Ottawa Catholic School Board (OCSB) and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB). It aimed to address the OSTA's projected funding gap of $7 million. 

Ottawa parents have also been struggling due to repeated bus cancellations, which the OSTA blamed on a lack of drivers.

Recommendations for a cheaper, more efficient system

Deloitte's report recommended eight measures for OSTA which it said will reduce expenses and increase efficiency.

1. Change start and end times (also known as "bell times") of schools for the convenience of buses.
2. Allow more time for students to arrive to, or leave from, the school under supervision.
3. The average student should spend more time on the bus, so long as it does not exceed the maximum of one hour.
4. The OCDSB and OCSB should share the same vehicle on more bus routes.
5. Find other ways to use fewer vehicles.
6. Replace special purpose vehicle routes with single large vehicle routes.
7. The OCDSB and OCSB should have the same calendars, including Professional Activity (PA) days.
8. Find ways to have more students on the bus at one time.

OSTA said it has accepted all but one of Deloitte's cost-saving recommendations, but noted that changes of more than 10 minutes to the bell times requires school board approval.

An agency spokesperson told CBC on Thursday it would review bell times in the coming year, calling the process "a lengthy one [that] requires extensive consultation with our school communities."

The report said recommendations 2 to 5 are "contingent" on changing the bell times and called bell times the "primary constraint" on the system.

The only recommendation OSTA rejected outright was the harmonization of school calendars, saying only the school boards have the authority to make that change.

What would a change to bell times mean?

Deloitte's report suggested that the OCDSB and OCSB school boards adopt a "tiered" system. Each school would be sorted into two or three tiers, and all the schools in the same tier would have the same bell time. 

Deloitte showed how, in one area, there were 11 different times that schools opened, across both school boards, between 7:55 a.m. and 9:20 a.m.

It ran a test, which it said showed that the vehicle deployment would be more efficient if schools were grouped into just two or three different opening times.

The tiered start times required more busses to be deployed earlier in the morning, from 6:45 a.m. onward. This meant the average student spent longer on their commute to school, but fewer buses had to be used all at once.

The OCDSB and OCSB did not respond to the CBC's request for comment in time for publication.

Read the full review