Parents relieved as Catholic school board reverses decision to cut bus attendants

Amanda Jollymore says she was overwhelmed with emotion when she found out that her daughter, Mia McPhail, would continue to have access to a school bus attendant as the Ottawa Catholic School Board reversed a decision to cut the program. Photo by Jean Levac /Postmedia

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Just one more thing.

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That’s the slogan Amanda Jollymore and Brian McPhail live by while caring for their six-year-old daughter Mia, who requires around-the-clock care as a non-verbal and medically fragile child.

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Over the past few weeks, “one more thing” involved diving head-first into advocacy after finding out the Ottawa Catholic School Board was slashing the bus attendant program that Mia relies on to get to and from school safely.

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So, when school board trustees voted on Tuesday night to reverse the decision and to reinstate the school bus attendant program, Jollymore didn’t know whether to laugh, clap or cry happy tears.

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For once the family had one less thing to worry about.

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“We just want to focus on the summer to be able to try to keep (Mia) healthy, keep her safe, keep her happy and just be able to now look towards the summer and not have to spend it worrying about how we’re going to get her to and from school safely,” Jollymore said.

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Mia’s school bus attendant is a vital part of her support system on her rides to and from St. Francis of Assisi School in Orléans. Since she’s at risk of seizures, aspiration and other medical complications, it’s a life-saving measure to have an attendant at her side who is trained to look after her.

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When they and other parents learned on June 5 that the attendants would be eliminated, with caretaking responsibilities shifted to bus drivers, Jollymore and McPhail joined the many other families across the city in sounding the alarm about the imminent dangers from those proposed cuts.

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With bus drivers already focused on the roads, many parents were concerned their children wouldn’t have access to proper care in case of medical emergencies.

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Nearly three weeks after the initial decision, the school board said it had heard parents’ concerns, with trustees voting unanimously to rescind the decision to slash the program.

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“Over the past several weeks, trustees have listened carefully to families and heard directly from those most affected by this decision,” board chair Mark Mullan wrote in a news release.

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“Parents and caregivers spoke passionately about the difference these supports make in the lives of their children. We listened, we reflected, and we unanimously agreed that continuing bus attendant services is the right decision.”

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Prior to the reinstatement of the program, her parents were grappling with how they’d find the time in their day to drive Mia to and from school every day rather than putting her on a bus they believed would be unsafe, their next “one more thing.”

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“I just hope everybody learned from this and we can grow to rebuild that trust because, unfortunately, our trust has been tarnished with this decision they made with less than 14 days left of the school year,” Jollymore said.