PRIMROSE -- When the COVID-19 pandemic forced the closure of schools, bus drivers were left with no students to transport.
Now, instead of picking up students, bus drivers are delivering school work to student's homes.
"When I go around to each stop, sometimes I meet the kids, sometimes I don't - of course at a distance. Sometimes I drop it in the mailbox. Sometimes I go up to the door," Attridge Transportation bus driver Richard Parkinson says.
Most students can keep in touch with their teachers online, but high-speed internet service isn't always available or affordable in rural areas.
Bus drivers are helping with that issue by delivering printed material to students who have requested it as part of the school board's distance learning program.
Primrose Elementary School principal Kimberly Dempsey-Jones says the drivers don't only deliver assignments; they also pick-up completed projects to be handed in.
"They get scanned to the teachers who then comments and sends an email back to the parents with some feedback on it," Dempsey-Jones explains.
Distance learning has been challenging for Helen Harcus and her two daughters, but she says the deliveries and support from the teachers make all the difference.
"My daughter's teacher is doing a great job following curriculum and keeping the kids as engaged as she can. She's giving the kids the work she would normally give to them in class," she says.
There are 18 schools in the Upper Grand District School Board using the school bus delivery system.
The three buses make about 50 deliveries each week.
