The issue of bus drivers being able to use safety stop arms in the City of Weyburn will have to wait until a joint meeting between Holy Family and Cornerstone is held on April 17 before a final decision is made.

While Holy Family voiced their support of a change in the city bylaw at their monthly meeting, the board of education at Cornerstone neither voiced support or opposition of a change in the city bylaw, deciding to table the decision until they could meet with Holy Family to further discuss the issue.

There was significant enough support for use of the flashing lights and stop arms at the School Community Council meeting of St. Dominic and St. Michael, with chairman Scott Benning presenting feedback from a parent and school community survey to Holy Family, for this board to voice their support on the issue.

"The Holy Family board of education will support a change in the city bylaw regarding the use of school bus flashing lights and stops arms, if that is what is decided," said Director of Education of Holy Family, Shelly Rowein. "We will be hosting a joint meeting with Cornerstone which will provide an opportunity for further discussion on the logistics to a bylaw change."

However, feedback from the Cornerstone School Community Councils raised some issues of concern. "One of the issues of concern is that some of our city schools don't have off-street bus loading zones and the feedback we have received from our School Community Councils is that use of stop arms would create traffic problems," said Don Rempel, Director of Education of Cornerstone. "Since city council expressed an interest in seeing the two schools boards coming to an agreement, we have to meet with Holy Family to discuss the issues of concern and come up with a solution."

"We also need to work with Holy Family to ensure that the education is there for parents, staff, students and drivers at our school," said Audrey Trombley, chair of Cornerstone. "This way, when a decision is made by the school boards, they will know what to do regarding loading zones and if a bus is permitted to use their stop arms."

Not everyone is happy with having to wait until April, for the boards to meet. "It is totally frustrating to not have a decision from the school boards at this time," said Sandy Spencer, who has been a bus driver since 2005 and is one of the driving forces behind wanting buses to use their stop arms. "The school boards have had this issue for five months to deal with, and now they keep on pushing the decision further into the future."

"The stop arms are there on the bus to give drivers an extra measure of safety for our kids, it is illegal for the stop arms to not be on the bus and yet, at the same time, it is illegal for us to use them in the City of Weyburn." Spencer said that this situation "has become so confusing for drivers, because the public doesn't know what to do when a bus is stopped on a road when their lights are not flashing. When told that it is illegal to use the stop arms in the city, most people I have talked to have reacted in shock."

The school bus stop laws in Canada are usually based on 11-705 of the 1992 Uniform Vehicle Code (UVC), "Overtaking and Passing a School Bus". Basically, under this traffic code, traffic in both directions (except on divided roads or highways) must stop for a yellow school bus when its red lights are flashing and its stop arm is extended.

Most provinces in Canada require red lights to flash whenever children are being loaded or unloaded. Saskatchewan is the only province where the Highway Traffic Board may approve a non-rural municipalities to make bylaws prohibiting the use of safety lights and stops arms.

When stops arms are used, penalties for illegally passing a stopped school bus is fined to the vehicle owner, with the cost of the fine in Saskatchewan ranging from $250 to $1,000.

Weyburn is not the only municipality in Saskatchewan to disallow the use of stop arms in the city, as Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Moose Jaw also have bylaws in place.

One solution might be a partial use of the stop arms inside the city, which was suggested by a SCC member of Cornerstone. Rempel detailed the suggestion to the board during discussion on the issue. "It was suggested that we have increased safety patrols in front of the schools and continue to disallow use of stop arms in loading zones, but enable our bus drivers to use the stop arms in residential areas."

"School patrols work quite well in our city when buses are parked in the loading/unloading zones and our school zones are also protected by lower speed limits," voiced Cornerstone trustee Len Williams to the proposed idea of continuing to disallow stop arms in front of school zones.

Spencer commented that this would be an acceptable solution for the bus drivers. "We don't have an issue with not using the stop arms in front of the schools, as long as there is proper supervision. We just want to be able to use the stop arms in a residential area, where we have kids who get off our bus and cross right in front without checking the street for cars."

"At least if you have an arm out in residential areas, you have a 90 per cent chance that drivers will stop, compared to the zero per cent that a driver will stop if there is no arm out to signal that kids are being unloaded," explained Spencer.

However, even with this solution, Rempel said there would still be issues to overcome. "We would still have to work with Holy Family to ensure the proper education of our staff and students regarding the decision."

Holy Family and Cornerstone will be meeting on April 17 to further discuss the issue. At that time, if an agreement is made, both school boards will then take their recommendation to city council.