Three Northeast Kingdom school districts have shut down buses for the week after a small outbreak of Covid-19 among drivers at Butler’s Bus Co.
The bus stoppage is affecting hundreds of students’ transportation to and from school.
Superintendents of the St. Johnsbury School District, Kingdom East School District and Caledonia Central Supervisory Union notified families Sunday that there would be no bus service this week while the outbreak was being investigated by the Vermont Department of Health.
In response to a question at a press conference Tuesday, Health Commissioner Mark Levine said he doesn’t know an exact number of positive cases at the bus company, but said the “count was not high,” and he’s not aware of any virus transmission happening onboard actual buses.
At this point, the outbreak should have a “pretty straightforward containment strategy,” Levine said.
“It’s an ongoing investigation, but the reality is, we’re already aware of cases, the company is aware of the cases, they’re aware of the guidance we provided regarding the need for the cases to isolate and for other drivers who became close contacts or other members of that company who became close contacts for the need for them to quarantine,” he said.
Caledonia Central Superintendent Mark Tucker said the health department contacted him, St. Johnsbury Superintendent Brian Ricca and Kingdom East Superintendent Jennifer Botzojorns during the weekend, along with Twila Perry, head of school at Lyndon Institute, “and told us they had some reports that raised some concerns about how Butler was or was not reporting Covid cases,” though he said he doesn’t know what triggered the concern.
Butler’s Bus Co. officials did not return requests for comment Tuesday.
At that point, Tucker said, he and the other two superintendents opted to cancel bus service for the week, but said it was important for them that school go on regardless.
“We keep school open,” he said. “We told parents if they could arrange alternate transportation, school would be open, and if they couldn’t, we’d support their kids remotely.”
Tucker said he doesn’t know how the bus stoppage has affected attendance, but said he knows seven busloads of Caledonia Central kids were affected by the closure.
Ricca, in St. Johnsbury, said a similar number of students were affected. The district typically runs seven buses, carrying between 300 and 350 students.
“We will share more information in the coming days about opportunities to pick up supplies, devices, and work for those families that cannot get their children to school,” Ricca wrote in his email to families.
However, at least on Monday and Tuesday, that was a nonissue, as the school went fully remote. Ricca said the school district simply didn’t have enough adults to staff the building, between the busing situation affecting teachers whose children attend school in one of the three districts, child care closures caused by rising case numbers in the NEK, and staff needing sick days to recover from their final dose of the Covid vaccine.
Lyndon Institute also went fully remote this week, though the school used Butler buses only for spring sports.
“We’re really in a precarious time right now,” Ricca said. “It’s important that we recognize as a state that we need to continue to follow all of our public health protocols to continue to keep our schools open, because that’s what’s best for students and best for families.”
On Sunday, the Vermont Department of Health dashboard showed that Caledonia County had 149 cases in the last 14 days — a significant increase from previous weeks.
