As the territory’s Department of Education considers school schedules for the years ahead, officials have made it clear the city’s transit schedule will be factored in.

No changes to the school schedule, however, are likely possible for this school year, the department told the Star this week.

“Our transportation co-ordinator will follow up with the city,” Bob Walker, the territory’s school council liaison, said in an interview.

His comments come following a presentation to city council Monday evening by Aden Horbachewsky, a Grade 9 Porter Creek Secondary School (PCSS) student, and his mother, Jennifer Daniels.

They were seeking changes to the city’s transit schedule. They told council the longer school day in place this year means students who use public transit have to catch a later bus.

That is making it impossible to get to after-school activities and/or getting them to part-time jobs about a half-hour later than they were able to get there last year.

Secondary school students have the option of getting a transit pass, provided through the Department of Education, rather than using the school bus system.

Daniels estimated there are about 25 students who regularly catch a city bus from PCSS to the downtown core, as her son does.

Walker said there are about 150 PCSS students in total who have opted for the city bus pass.

In their presentation Monday night, Daniels told council that overall, the transit pass program has proved positive for students. It has given them greater flexibility to get to activities, work and events outside of school hours.

Now, with the school day extended by a few minutes, it means PCSS students can no longer catch the 3:01 p.m. bus downtown. Instead, they have to take the 3:20 p.m. bus after getting out of class at 3:05 p.m.

That gets them downtown at around 3:50 p.m., after many 3:30 p.m. activities have already started. Those with part-time jobs downtown are only available for shifts after about 4 p.m.

Following the presentation, city staff were tasked with looking into the issue. One councillor said he wished there had been more consultation with the city about the impacts of the longer school days.

Walker said Education will be in contact with the city to look at the matter.

He pointed out the transportation co-ordinator meets regularly with the city. However, he could not say whether the impact of this year’s schedule change had been specifically discussed at those meetings before the school year began.

There would be significant challenges to changing the end of the school day at PCSS for students to catch the earlier bus, Walker said.

He noted it would impact the schedules of other schools, as the school bus system is based on end-of-day bell times and used by all public schools in the city.

A change in PCSS’s schedule, for example, could also have a big impact on Hidden Valley Elementary School and ÉcoleWhitehorse Elementary School.

Walker said it’s unclear yet what can be done in the short term to deal with the issue. However, it’s clearly a factor to take into consideration as the department continues its consultations on the school calendar for the coming years.

“We flagged that as something we need to look at,” Walker said. “We want to make it work for the students.”

Whitehorse Transit manager Cheri Malo confirmed Thursday that the city and territory are “definitely talking back and forth” on the matter.

“We work closely together,” she said.

At a meeting with the territory earlier this year, Malo said she had explained why the city cannot simply change the transit schedule.

Each year, individual schools typically make slight changes to their daily schedules. It was only this year that the adopted extension to the school day didn’t jive with the city’s transit schedule.

As to why the city can’t simply adjust its schedule to be more aligned with changes to the school hours made each year, Malo explained: “One route is engrained in another.”

There’s detailed planning that goes into making sure buses can connect within one or two minutes of one another to ensure passengers are able to easily make connections to get where they need to be.

The last major overhaul to the system in 2011 took four years of work before it was launched.

Meanwhile, seemingly minor changes – most recently adding the Whistle Bend route to the system, for example – can take up to a year of planning to ensure it connects with other routes while meeting the needs of those taking the approximately 660,000 rides purchased annually.

Malo noted it was just about a week before school started that officials from the Department of Education contacted the transit department when the scheduling issue became apparent.

Malo stressed that the city cannot alter the transit schedule.

However, in addition to working with Education, she said, she will speak to administrative staff at every local high school to ensure they’re aware of the transit schedule when they develop their plans for the 2018/2019 school year.