Pembina Hills Public Schools’ (PHPS) youngest riders and their parents had the opportunity to learn about school bus safety during an hour-long orientation lesson at Barrhead Elementary School on Aug. 16. PHPS director of transportation Shantelle Haitel said they have hosted the orientation, called Meet the Bus, at all its schools with a kindergarten program for many years.
“The whole idea behind the program is to give kindergarten students or first riders a chance to become comfortable with the idea of riding the bus, so they are not scared when school starts,” she said.
As part of the orientation, students and their parents learned about how to safely wait for and get on a school bus along with the rules of conduct when riding on the bus from an actual school bus driver.
“We like to teach them to look at the bus driver and make eye contact with the bus driver, as well as looking both ways for traffic before they start crossing the street, that sort of thing,” she said.
The orientation ended with the students and their parents being taken for a short drive around the school before being given a small token school bus as a memento. Haitel also wanted to remind motorists that children will once again be on the streets going to and from schools.
The first day of school is Aug. 30.
