As a former trustee (1982-88) who was involved in the process of establishing courtesy busing, and also in the first accommodation review of Niagara District Secondary School in mid-'80s, I would like to clarify some of the uninformed comments surrounding this subject.

NDSS first came under accommodation review in mid-'80s (not 1999 as some are stating). At that time, Gary Holmes, who was the director, Chuck Salter, a superintendent, and the accommodation review, of which I was a member, brought in the performing arts program to keep NDSS from closing. Bob Crawford can verify the dates and the student numbers.

Courtesy busing came about as a result of the board's decision to allow children of all ages to access school transportation as space allowed, beginning with JK and extending through to high school. Students attending schools in St Catharines (i.e. Queen Mary, Collegiate, Kernahan, Sir Winston and Eden) are all bused to one location, in this case Eden, which acts as a "terminal" for transfer to other buses. These buses then take students to their individual schools.

There is no magic formula for Eden students to arrive earlier other than the fact that all students need to be at the "terminal" by a certain time (around 8:20 a.m.) in order to transfer and arrive at their schools on time.

It is the reverse procedure coming home, thus making Eden students wait an extra half-hour.

All four of my children have gone through this process when they attended French immersion and two when attending Eden.

Barry Wilding

Niagara-on-the-Lake