High school midterms delayed as NLESD suspends bus company with a history

No students who rely on getting the bus to school will be penalized for being late or not making it to classes Thursday or Friday, according to the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District (NLESD).

• Safety concerns pull buses from 22 N.L. schools

However, the lack of buses is affecting high school midterm exams. With all except the Airport Heights bus services forGonzagaHigh School in St. John's affected, exams have been postponed to next week Jan. 25 to Feb. 1.

Holy Trinity High inTorbayhas postponedmidterms to thesame dates.

The district cited safety concerns on Wednesday in suspendingits contractwithKellowayInvestments, which provides busing service to 22 schools in the St. John's area.

"These types of decisions are not taken lightly, because we do know the impact it has on families and on the system," said Terry Hall, assistant director of education with theNLESD.

Price fixing, stolen goods

This is not the first time there have been issues withKellowayInvestments Ltd. and itsdirector, JamesKelloway.

In 2013, Kelloway received house arrest for buying goods stolen from home construction sites in St. John's and Paradise.

Before that, in 2009, Kelloway Investmentswas one of a number of companies found to have broken competition rules on school bus tenders years before.

The company offers snow clearing and lawn maintenance services, in addition tobusing.

Lost confidence, quick action

The NLESD's Terry Hall apologized to the roughly 3,500 students and their parents for the short notice they had to make other arrangements for transportation Thursday and Friday, but said he's "pretty confident" they'll get a plan in place.

"We'll have busing in place for Monday to ensure that kids can get to school," Hall toldThe St. John's Morning ShowThursday, although he did not offer details.

"We do understand that it can be difficult, and we couldn't provide the notice that we would have liked to."

But he said the NLESD did not want to lose instructional time for students, so chose not to close affected schools.

Hall said a breakdown in communication between Kellowayand the district regardingdelayed buses left students standing outside in the cold, compromising their safety.

"Once confidence is lost you have to quickly go into action," he said.

"The last few days it has gotten to a point where it's unacceptable to us, which led us to this decision."

Hallsaid the district has had concerns recently about some buses not being used,possibly causing the delays.Hel said the district will now have the contractor address the concerns and issues, to resolve the problems

"[It's] not a termination at this point, it is just a suspension so we can talk and see what happens."

In the meantime, Hall said parents were notified Wednesday night and everyone is being asked to "keep an eye and be more vigilant" with the expected increase in traffic as students use alternate arrangements.

A full list of affected bus routes is below.

Suspended routes

• Brother Rice Junior High:16-052-1A
• Cape St. Francis Elementary: All routes
• GonzagaHigh School:16-068-1B;16-068-2B; 16-068-3; 16-068-4; 16-068-5; 16-068-6;16-068-7B; and16-068-8B
• Holy Trinity Elementary:All routes
• Holy Trinity High School:All routes
• Macdonald Drive Elementary: All routes
• Macdonald Drive Junior High:16-069-1A;16-069-2A;16-069-3A; 16-069-4A; 16-069-5A; and 16-069-6A
• Newtown Elementary:16-066-3; 16-066-4; and 16-066-5
• O'Donel High School:16-066-1A
• RenniesRiver Elementary:All routes
• St. Francis of Assisi:All routes
• St. JohnBosco:All routes
• St. Peter's Primary:15-066-1B; and 16-066-2
• St. Theresa's School:16-052-1B; and 16-052-2

Alternate transportation services

• Beachy Cove Elementary
• Bishop Abraham Elementary
• Bishop Field Elementary
• Brother Rice Junior High
• Goulds Elementary
• Holy Family Elementary
• Holy Heart High School
• Leary's Brook Junior High
• Macdonald Drive Junior High
• Newtown Elementary
• O'Donel High School
• RenniesRiver Elementary
• Roncalli Elementary
• St. Andrew's Elementary
• St. Peter's Primary
• St. Teresa's School