Back in my early days on the executive of the PEI Home and School Federation I received a call from a parent concerned about the cancellation of the “late bus” in West Prince: they were concerned that this cancellation had made participating in after-school activities hard for many students, and they wanted something done about it.
A couple of days later I had occasion to be on the phone with Dale Sabean, then Superintendent of the Western School Board, and I brought the matter up: with some indignation in my voice, I’m sure, I raised the issue. “How could the board be so short-sighted to take this ham-handed move?”, I might have said (although I was likely more polite).
“You know there hasn’t been a late bus for more than 20 years, right?”, Dale replied.
To this point I’d been operating under the assumption that the cancellation of the late bus was a recent move, and one that needed to be nipped in the bud immediately; that was certainly the impression I got from the complaining parent.
Dale and I had a good laugh about this, I suggested that the board re-examine the notion of establishing a late bus, and I emerged chastened, wiser about the half-life of public school issues on Prince Edward Island, and happy that Dale Sabean was such a kind-hearted superintendent.
Today, the CBC reports, Public Schools Branch announced that there will be a one-year, two-days-a-week trial of a late bus in West Prince.