Recently School District 27 Board of Directors approved a motion to eliminate well used and much needed bus stops throughout the Cariboo - Chilcotin area. They are suddenly deciding to enforce the 3km walking radius for our children; yet are failing to recognize that many of these areas have roads that are unfit and unsafe to have children walking on.  

These roads are not equipped with sidewalks and often have no shoulder space; have many sharp curves with little visibility; or, have a posted speed limit of 80km/hour.  

These roads are also very poorly maintained during the winter months; often having a stretch of days without being plowed and are very rarely sanded to reduce the risk of slipping on the ice.  

There is also an abundance of wildlife in the area: including bears, cougars, and protective deer during the spring months, among many others.  

The school district’s stance is that they are NOT required to provide bus services at all. They believe that children need more activity and walking in dangerous road conditions will gives them that. They believe that we have the authority to install sidewalks over the next 2 months. They believe that we should seek out before- and after-school care; however, they want to enforce their policy of only dropping our kids off at the stop closest to their house. If we were to create before- and after-school care programs, they will refuse to drive our kids to them. The board also believes that it's ok for our kids to walk in severely cold weather conditions, even on days that the school district won't allow our kids to spend recess outside due to the cold. They believe that it's acceptable for our kids to walk home through any snowstorm that blows through, even on the days where drivers are advised to stay home; but, according to SD27 it's ok for our kids to walk.  

SD27 believes that families can choose to move and settle where they want to. Correct. However, many families take into consideration the services that are available when moving to new areas - for example, a well established and long standing bus route. They are discontinuing a service that attracted families to the area to begin with and are now deflecting the responsibility onto everyone else. Many families depend on bus service being provided in order to maintain a two income household and they are now having to decide between being able to pay their bills or getting their kids to school.  

Please sign this petition to show the SD27 Board how wrong their decision is and how necessary this service is for many families of our community.