Meet Steve and his team. They help make sure our kids are safe.

For every school bus you see in the Sault and area, there is not only a school bus driver dedicated to safely transporting children and youth to and from school, but also an indoors team overseeing school bus operations.

Algoma Huron-Superior Transportation Services (AHSTS) is based in the former Etienne Brule Public School building at 241 Albert Street West.

The Transportation Services team consists of Steve Fratesi, supervisor, Jane Taylor and Nicole Patrick, transportation officers, and Anthony Mannarino, transportation data analyst.

The team, if necessary, will shut school bus service down in certain locations across the Sault and area in bad weather conditions for students safety, or, in the case of last month’s snow day, recommend the buses be pulled right across the region.

While we’re currently having some relief from the snowfall and windy conditions that hammered us in recent weeks, Fratesi told SooToday “I remember it well,” referring to the Dec. 15 snow day which brought the Sault and area to a stand still.

Schools and most businesses were closed, along with city transit and school buses.

SooToday even received complaints from some who felt extremely inconvenienced they would not be able to use their reserved tickets to view Rogue One: A Star Wars Story at Station Mall’s Galaxy Cinemas at the movie’s Dec. 15 premiere!

But, back to more serious matters.

“If we feel the buses shouldn’t be running, we’ll dialogue by conference call with all four school board directors and let them know what the school bus operators’ feelings are about running the buses, and if we advise them not to run then they’ll all agree (to suspend school bus operations for that day, or in the case of exceptionally bad weather such as that of Dec.15, to shut schools down completely).

Overseeing school bus service in our area is not a small task.

The Transportation Services team coordinates school bus operations for the Sault and Algoma region’s four school boards; the Algoma District School Board (ADSB), the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board (H-SCDSB), the Conseil scolaire de district du Grand Nord de l'Ontario and the Conseil scolaire catholique du Nouvel-Ontario.

As a result, Transportation Services covers a wide area, with satellite operators living and working out of Blind River, Elliot Lake and Wawa.

Transportation Services drive almost 10,000 students to and from school daily.

There are approximately 210 school buses from seven bus companies under the Transportation Services umbrella.

“Typically we watch the weather very closely through radar, we have our connections with Environment Canada, the city of Sault Ste. Marie, we keep in touch with the townships and what’s going on with plowing,” Fratesi said.

The team also keeps in touch with Sault Police and OPP.

“When we’re expecting bad weather we’re up extra early in the morning, we’re on guard, watching the weather and making the call (a decision on whether to cancel school bus service) as early as possible so that parents, schools and school boards are informed.”

On a typical day, Fratesi and his crew start work at 6 a.m. and finish at 4:30 p.m., but on bad weather days they’ll start at 4:30 a.m. and stand by for as long as it takes to ensure student/driver safety, often until after 6 p.m.

Transportation Services has ‘spotters’ (known in other communities as ‘snow captains’), who are school bus drivers in remote areas such as Batchawana and Goulais Bay.

“They’re our eyes and ears,” Fratesi said.

Spotters in those areas will call in and advise the team of unsafe driving conditions, weather-related or otherwise, which they feel could endanger regularly bused schoolchildren in their journey to and from school, and whether school bus services in those areas should be cancelled.

“We gather intelligence from them,” Fratesi said.

Complete shutdowns such as that experienced Dec. 15, Fratesi said, are actually easier than days when snowfall and wind levels fluctuate from one hour to another.

The real heroes in all of this, Fratesi said, are the bus drivers themselves.

“They do an awesome job.  They show what they’re really worth in bad weather, they’re definitely professionals.”