School bus back-up plan works well on frigid winter day

On Tuesday, Jan. 21, on one of the coldest days of the year, School District 166 had three buses with mechanical problems. Fortunately school staff and community members pitched in and all students made it to school safely with only a minimal delay.

Superintendent Beth Schwarz said buses on the Pike Lake Road, Hovland and West End routes had mechanical problems. Schwarz said all three buses appeared to be working fine when they left the bus garage, but began to have problems down the road.

Schwarz said when buses have mechanical issues, bus drivers keep driving if possible until another bus is available to transport students, especially in cold weather because the problem could be diesel fuel gelling.

That was not the case for two of the buses that are new to the school and the problem did not appear to be caused by the cold weather. One of the buses is a 2011 model and the other 2012. The bus company, International, came up to investigate and Schwarz said it seemed to be a problem in the exhaust system. She said, “They think they got it fixed.”

The other bus started to act up when it hit a pocket of extremely cold temperatures in the Hovland area. Schwarz said temps there registered -40, significantly lower than the approximately -27 at the Grand Marais Airport, which is used as the thermometer to make the determination of whether or not to delay or close school.

Bus Maintenance Supervisor Tom Nelson and school district staff monitor the bus radios—using ARMER radios, which Schwarz said have been a godsend for reliable communication— and have “rescue” buses standing by. Additional buses were dispatched immediately.

Schwarz said all of the buses were able to keep idling and there was heat.

She said the last bus arrived at the school at about 8:20 a.m. The school carefully checked attendance and called anyone whose child was not at school, to make sure they were absent and hadn’t missed a bus because of the delay. The school sent a staff member to pick up one student who had been missed.

Schwarz thanked her staff members for working together to ensure student safety and thanked the community for its patience and understanding.