Climate change could make school closure decisions even more difficult
CBC
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch says there were seven "snow days" this winter, which is on par for a typical winter.
But those missed days of school came on the heels of five to 10 days lost after post-tropical storm Fiona in September.
Add it all together, and PSB director Norbert Carpenter says that's a lot of missed classes due to weather.
But what impact could climate change have on school closures in the future?
"I think the real question here is, 'Do those unprecedented events become more routine?' And if they do, I do believe people need to come together and say 'What can we do differently?'" said Carpenter.
Environment Canada's senior climatologist David Phillips says extreme weather events like Fiona will likely become more common.
And in the winter, Islanders should expect more messy, tough-to-forecast days, with a mix of precipitation that can make roads slick and hard to clear.
"When your average temperature goes from –8 to –2 [degrees], you're probably going to see a 60 per cent increase in freezing rain. So stay tuned. You think it's weird and wild now. It's only going to get more so, in the years to come," he said.
Carpenter said officials have started discussing potential alternatives to shutting down in bad weather.
That could include opening schools for students who can get a drive and offering online learning to those that can't.
But when it comes to the idea of moving class online, Carpenter said that has to be seen through a "lens of equity."
"If we're having remote learning, does everyone in the province have the ability to get online? Does everyone in the province have resources available to them?" he said.
"Will we have to adapt because of climate change? We may have to. So these discussions may amp up in the future, because we hope Fiona was an anomaly. But maybe it wasn't. And if we're faced with another situation like that, I really do feel people need to get around a table and start talking about how we may look at things differently."
Dave Gillis is the Public School Branch's director of transportation and risk management.
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.