A new schedule for school buses around the city will be made available tomorrow and put in place Monday.

The move comes in light of many issues that have emerged around the school bus system since the academic year began last week.

The routes were altered this year following a review of the system.

As Val Royle, the territory’s deputy minister of Education, said Wednesday evening, clearly, the new system is not working.

Royle spoke at a meeting in the gym at Hidden Valley Elementary School off the North Klondike Highway.

While the gathering was focused on school bus issues in that area, where numerous safety issues have arisen, many of the concerns reflected what’s happening around the entire city.

About 60 people turned up for the meeting, with Royle beginning the session by outlining nearly 20 issues.

They ranged from the safety concerns that have repeatedly come up to the amount of time students spend on the bus to the bus registration process to onboard bullying.

Many of the safety issues in the Mayo Road area have focused on bus stop locations which, in many cases, force students to walk along the highway.

The distance from the bus stops to some homes has also been an issue for families.

As one parent commented last night, there’s a big difference between walking one kilometre to a bus stop in a country residential neighbourhood over walking one kilometre to a bus stop in Copper Ridge.

In that subdivision, there are sidewalks and street lights, and a number of people are usually out during the morning and afternoon, when children are going to or coming home from school.

Royle said the “department recognizes the need to be more cognizant in the zones” the buses are in.

A computer program that helped design this year’s routes, she noted, wouldn’t have factored in the unique conditions of the area.

“It’s one thing to have a computer system generate routes,” she said. “It’s another to drive them.”

Another major issue for the area is the transfer station students in the area are bused to in order to catch the bus to their individual schools.

While some students have a 15-minute wait there, others have reported getting to the transfer station after the bus to their school has left.

And for Hidden Valley students, long bus rides in the morning for some have meant driving past their school three times before they actually arrive at school.

That happens once as they travel to the transfer station and then two more times as their second bus makes its way through the area and back to the school.

Expressing her thanks to the principal at Hidden Valley and staff, Royle said the school has come in to help with that situation.

A teacher has volunteered to be at the school early enough that the first bus can drop kids off rather than take them to the transfer station.

For other students, the wait at the transfer station has been cut down with the proposed schedule so they won’t be there so long and other changes will help buses get to the station more efficiently.

As Royle explained, demands on the bus system are getting more complex.

A number of students live with two families or take one route from their home to school and then another route to a childcare provider at the end of the day.

That means each of those students takes up two seats on the system rather than one.

“It’s getting complicated,” she said.

Many students throughout the city also don’t attend the school nearest to their home.

In the area of Hidden Valley, for example, Catholic students attend Holy Family Elementary School in Porter Creek or Vanier Catholic Secondary School in Riverdale.

Meanwhile, French-speaking students might travel to Copper Ridge to École Émilie-Tremblay, and French immersion students have to go downtown to Whitehorse Elementary School or to Riverdale to F.H. Collins Secondary School.

First Nations students also have a right to attend Elijah Smith Elementary.

And if a school is filled, Takhini Elementary School has been identified as the overflow school for Whitehorse-area students.

There are also experiential programs offered out of the Wood Street Centre that students are bused to.

And there may also be students who have moved to one area of town, but attend their original school in another part of the city.

With more than 700 additional registrations coming in since the school year started last week, the situation has been a challenge, Royle said.

While the department has stressed the importance of registering for the school bus, as one woman pointed out last night, registering was no easy feat for families.

She reported attempting to register multiple times only to have the procedure fail online, a common complaint by many aiming to get their kids on the school bus for the year.

Staff were on-hand at last night’s meeting to help with registrations that still had to be done.

Royle acknowledged there was a number of issues around the registration process and noted a plan is already in place for next year that will see parents simply check a box on their child’s third term report card if they think the family will continue to require the same bus service next year.

Recognizing that things can always change, there will be a process for new registrations or any changes that might occur.

While the bus changes will do little to address issues around bullying on the bus system, Royle noted such matters should first be addressed with school principal.

If there are students from two schools involved, both principals should be involved. There is also a dispute resolution process in place if initial attempts to resolve the matter aren’t successful.

Meanwhile, parents and caregivers in other parts of the city are continuing to deal with issues from the new system as well.

As mother Christina Lee and Emily Howard, who looks after Lee’s kids after school, told the Star Wednesday, Lee’s children never got off their bus as scheduled in the afternoon when Howard went to meet them.

When she questioned where they were, she was told by the bus driver that another bus was now doing that route for Holy Family Elementary School, where the kids attend.

As Howard inquired more about when the new route started, the bus driver radioed back to the Takhini Transport office only to find out that the students were indeed supposed to be picked up, and that the route had not changed. The bus had to go back and pick up the students.

“This is a big safety concern,” Lee said, noting her family has used the bus system since last year and there were no problems until the service started this year.

While she contacted Takhini Transport and the Department of Education, Lee said the bus company hung up on her, and the department essentially cited issues with late registrations in explaining the issues.

Howard, meanwhile, noted numerous issues with the after-school bus showing up on time over the last couple of weeks.

Takhini Transport has directed media inquiries on the matter to the Department of Education, noting it is following the schedules and routes set out by the department.

Royle noted the department is working with the contractor, who had been invited but opted not to attend last night’s meeting.

Speaking following last night’s meeting, Royle stressed the new schedule aims to address the numerous issues that have emerged with the start of the school year. Drivers will be running the routes prior to the schedule being confirmed.

“We get that people are frustrated,” she said.

The new schedule will be made available Friday on the department’s website as well as being posted at schools and public facilities like the Canada Games Centre.

Royle also indicated copies could be sent home with students as well.