In southeastern Ontario, it is a ritual that has become all too familiar for local families this month: the early morning notification that school buses have been cancelled.
But long before parents receive that email, Jeremy DeCosta is already on the road.
As the CEO of Tri-Board Transportation Services — which covers southeastern Ontario from Kingston to the east, Quinte West to the west and Bancroft to the north — DeCosta is responsible for the safety of thousands of students. On storm days, that means stepping into the role of “Snow Captain.”
“We’ve got about 20 or 25 eyes out there right now helping us get to our decision every morning,” DeCosta said during a ride-along Monday morning. “It’s a combination of mostly drivers who take photos and send them in to help us with our assessment.”
DeCosta’s day begins just after 4 a.m. While most of the region sleeps, he is out checking road conditions firsthand. His routine includes a critical conference call with a meteorologist to verify what has fallen overnight and what is coming next.
On Monday, the report was stark: 39 centimetres of snow had already fallen over Belleville, Ont.
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“With all of this snowfall … we’re expecting this to be frozen. So icy conditions are definitely there,” Stéphanie Bergeron meteorologist warned during the morning briefing.
While data helps, on-the-ground reports are the deciding factor. DeCosta says the biggest challenge is often the difference between major arteries and residential streets.
DeCosta explained some streets have had a “recent path of a snowplow… But the street right around the corner hasn’t seen a snowplow yet. It’s that variability that makes it difficult to operate school buses.”
To bridge that gap, DeCosta relies on a network of Snow Captains stationed across the Tri-Board region.
Reports flooded in on Monday from across the district. In the Belleville area, a captain reported between 30 and 40 centimetres of accumulation. Further north in Bancroft, conditions were even more treacherous, with captains reporting snow-covered highways where drivers couldn’t see the centre line.
“Just at this point, it’s dangerous,” Lisa Hayward, the Bancroft Snow Captain, told DeCosta.
Armed with this information, the decision was made shortly after 5:30 a.m. to cancel all school transportation for the day.
Monday marked the ninth snow day in just 16 school days since the holiday break — a statistic DeCosta admits is rare.
“That number of snow days in such a short period of time is unusual,” he said.
There is a silver lining for frustrated parents: aside from a small dusting forecast for Tuesday, snow is not expected for the remainder of the week, suggesting the buses — and DeCosta — might finally get a break.
