Behind the scenes of Ottawa’s school bus cancellations: varying accounts

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What actually happened behind the scenes last summer before the families of 7,500 students learned school buses were cancelled only days before school started?

That was the question frustrated west-end parents asked as they scrambled to find alternative transportation and searched for an explanation of why they learned about the situation only at the last minute.

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Three documents, filed in court in relation to a constructive dismissal lawsuit, trace the events that led to the cancellations — from two different perspectives.

None of the claims have been proven in court.

Two of the documents were filed by lawyers for Vicky Kyriaco, the former head of the Ottawa Student Transportation Authority (OSTA), the bus consortium that serves Ottawa’s two English school boards.

The statement of claim alleges Kyriaco warned the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and the Ottawa Catholic School Board of the danger that buses would be cancelled months before it happened — but the school boards delayed notifying the public and she ended up being scapegoated when the firestorm ignited.

OSTA’s board of directors and school board officials undermined Kyriaco’s effectiveness and interfered with her ability to perform her duties, disregarding her warnings about the scope of a funding deficit that made it hard to negotiate contracts and cutting her out of meetings with Ministry of Education officials, the statement alleged.

On June 7, 2023, Kyriaco sent an email to school board officials regarding potential risks to service if the boards did not supplement a funding gap with additional funds, according to the statement of claim, which added there was a high risk that two rural operators Kyriaco had been negotiating with would decline a contract with reduced compensation. Kyriaco cautioned that the school boards would need to advise families of any potential service interruptions no later than June 16.

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On June 16, Kyriaco prepared a communication, but both school boards resisted posting information for at least another week. On June 19, Kyriaco advised the OSTA board that even with additional one-time funding of $6.5 million, the funding gap was closer to $8.9 million, according to the statement of claim.

According to the statement of defence, Kyriaco posted the communication on June 19 and it was delayed only one business day. However, many parents did not learn the specifics of how they would be affected until just before school started. At the time, OSTA reported that it had negotiated contracts with nine of 10 bus companies, but was unable to renew one contract.  Eric Hochgeschurz, the owner of Carleton Place-based Premier Bus Lines, which had served 36 routes, affecting about 3,000 students and the rural and suburban west end of Ottawa, confirmed to this newspaper on Aug. 29 that Premier’s contract had expired in June.

Kyriaco was on a medical leave of absence from July 18 to Aug. 28. Once she went on leave, “the nature of the communications became inaccurate and failed to provide information regarding the true state of school board transportation in Ottawa,” Kyriaco’s statement of claim alleged.

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When Kyriaco returned on Aug. 28, the two school boards shared a communication that they planned to post, according to the statement of claim. “Ms. Kyriaco initially objected as she felt that it misrepresented to parents how much work had been done regarding negotiations during the summer months when she was on leave, but she agreed to allow the school boards to post this messaging as the important thing was to let parents know of the service disruptions.”

The statement of claim said Kyriaco was left to “face the fury of parents who had no alternatives, no childcare and no way to get their children to school.”  When the extent of the cancellations became clear to families and local politicians, Kyriaco had to “bear the brunt of the public’s ire alone.”

OSTA’s statement of defence tells a different story.

When the provincial funding formula changed in the spring of 2023, Kyriaco “suggested that she would just go ahead and make a deal with operators at the level that would ensure a contract with the transportation operators, irrespective of the funding and budget of OSTA,” according to the statement of defence. The board of directors could not approve anything beyond the available funds in the provincial funding formula.

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At a June 15 emergency meeting of the OSTA board, Kyriaco said several operators had declined their contracts and warned that there would likely be an escalation of the driver shortage in September.

The boards wrote a letter to the Ministry of Education on June 16, intending to give the province a week to respond before telling the community. The letter resulted in a one-time funding agreement, said the statement of defence.

The statement denied the allegations that duties were taken from Kyriaco. These were offers of accommodation in her return-to-work plan, including a graduated return to work. Among other stipulations, her medical note said she could only occasionally deal with deadlines, had limited ability to concentrate on detail, could cope with only small degrees of distraction and was unable to cope with confrontational situations, according to the statement of defence.

At the meeting on Aug. 28, Kyriaco articulated her desire to be in charge, said the statement. “She ended the meeting by saying everyone needed to get out of her ‘f..ing’ way and let her do what she does ‘without any help or interference.’ ”

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According to the statement of defence, communications to the public and parents about the bus operator that had not renewed its contract did not go out until late August as it was “only at that point” that senior staff at each board considered the negotiation efforts to have concluded without a contract renewal.

In a reply to the statement of defence, Kyriaco’s lawyers said she had warned the OSTA board that the bus operator would not accept a low-ball offer. OSTA’s offer to that operator was rejected on July 24, but OSTA did not deal with the situation until senior school board staff had returned from vacation, resulting in a missed opportunity to redesign routes, retain drivers or provide timely communications with families, according to the reply to the statement of defence.

Meanwhile, the reply said Kyriaco had concerns about student safety, which she shared with the OSTA board. The shortage of drivers resulted in a constant rotation of temporary drivers who lacked experience and familiarity with children and routes, “which led to incidents like kindergarten children being dropped off without adequate supervision on a regular basis,” said the reply to the statement of defence.

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Kyriaco departed her role on Oct. 2 “in response to the toxic work environment created by OSTA’s actions, and the OSTA Board’s determination to publicly humiliate her,” according to the statement of claim. She is asking the court for $500,000 in damages, plus two years’ salary.

Reached by email, Kyriaco declined to comment.

The OCDSB did not respond to a request for comment.

In a statement, the OCSB said as the matter is currently before the courts, OSTA’s legal representatives will handle it through the legal process. “While litigation is ongoing, it would be inappropriate for OCSB to make any additional comments.” 

The Ministry of Education hired the auditing and consulting firm Deloitte last fall to conduct a third-party review of student transportation at OCDSB and OCSB. That report has not yet been made public.

According to OSTA’s most recent report, as of March 8, it had had no long-term cancellations on any routes, although the bus driver shortage was still causing some day-to-day cancellations.

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