Select bus routes canceled due to covid

PALMER — Dozens of cars lined up along Gulkana Street in Palmer to pick up students at Swanson and Sherrod Elementary on Monday.

Mat-Su Borough School District Schools opened last week with 88 percent of the nearly 18,245.75 students receiving their instruction in-person at local Valley schools. The MSBSD sent out a letter notifying parents over the weekend that buses would not be running to Palmer area schools. Families were notified that First Student, the contractor who supplies buses and drivers to MSBSD, would have some substitute drivers on bus routes this week. The transportation cancelations will possibly continue through next week.

“We were alerted that they had driver shortages and they could not fulfill their routes and so because of that we had to make a plan to let our families know that there wouldn’t be transportation and we had to decide who would be impacted and when,” said MSBSD Public Information Officer Jillian Morrissey.

The district opened schools to in-person instruction last week with no mandate for students to wear masks on buses, bucking the Federal mandate issued by the Centers for Disease Control in February.

“When the presidential order came out it did not specifically address school buses. There was an FAQ that came out later that did and so across the nation this is being looked at and being interpreted differently,” said Morrissey.

All of the other large school districts in Alaska currently require students to wear masks on buses. Presidential order 13998 includes school bus mask mandates.

“Yes, school bus operators, including operations by public school districts, and their passengers are required to wear masks as defined by the Order issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The CDC Order provides limited exemptions to the mask requirement for certain small categories of individuals, including: children under the age of 2; persons with disabilities who cannot wear a mask, or cannot safely wear a mask because of a disability as defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act; and persons for whom wearing a mask would create a risk to workplace health, safety, or job duty,” reads the FAQ. “The CDC Order, consistent with the mandate in Executive Order 13998 to implement additional measures to protect public health in domestic travel, requires a mask to be worn by any operator or passenger traveling on a conveyance within the United States unless otherwise exempted. Conveyances include all road vehicles (subject to certain exceptions, e.g., for private conveyances operated solely for personal, non-commercial use), including school buses.”

Buses servicing special education students were not affected by the transportation cancelations. Tuesday, buses to Colony middle and high schools as well as Pioneer Peak, Finger Lake, Cottonwood Creek and Machetanz Elementary schools will not run. Teeland Middle routes 33, 36, 41 and 50 will not run as well as shuttles from Colony to and from Valley Pathways, Burchell High School and Career Tech High School will not run. Wednesday, Wasilla area schools will be affected. Wasilla High and Middle schools as well as Iditarod, Tanaina, Snowshoe, Knik, and Goose Bay Elementary Schools will be affected by the transportation cancelations. With more families electing to send their students to school virtually last year, the district’s policy of one student per seat on buses was more plausible. With 88 percent of students returning to school in person, that mitigation strategy is not as feasible this semester.

“Last year we had a little more success with that but this year as more kids come back to school and females are using the transportation services it’s done where possible but most of the time that’s just not able to be achieved,” said Morrissey.

Redington and Houston will be affected by the transportation cancelations on Thursday as well as partial outages for Meadow Lakes Elementary, Burchell High School, CTHS, and shuttles to American Charter Academy, Alaska Middle College and Valley Pathways. Friday, outages to Larson, and Shaw Elementary schools as well as Birchtree and American Charter schools will occur. Teeland Middle routes 42, 43, 45, 47, 49, 51, 57, 61 and 81 will also not run.

On Tuesday, CTHS will be the first MSBSD school to enter into the ‘yellow’ risk level with 11 total cases and seven new cases announced on Monday.

“The District’s Health Advisory Team, in consultation with Mat-Su Public Health, has determined that Mat-Su Career Tech High School will be shifting operational zones from green to yellow due to outbreaks (hotspots) and an increase in community transmission of COVID-19. While in the current yellow operational zone all staff and students will be expected to wear a mask beginning Tuesday, August 24,” reads an email sent to parents.

There have been 59 cases reported since school started last week. There were 28 new cases announced on Monday. Palmer High and Finger Lake Elementary School both had three new cases, bringing PHS’ total up to 8. Houston Jr./Sr. High has had four total cases with two new cases on Monday.