First Day of School

Point Roberts school children age 10 and older must go to school in the town of Blaine. This requires a 40 minute bus ride, almost entirely through Canada, and through two International border crossings, twice a day. That does not include time on the bus while the driver completes his route in Point Roberts. A student may be on the bus for over an hour each way. That accumulates to 10 hours per week, 400 hours per school year, and a potential 3600 hours in their school life, spent on a bus!

Participation in school extra curricular activities, such as band and sports, require a whole new set of logistics. Some students in these cases may billet during the week, with friends, relatives or teammates.

What if a student misses the return bus? There are two bus times, earlier, right after school, and one a while later. I’m pretty sure a student would only miss both busses once!

The sacrifices these students, and their families, make for an education are very impressive.

PS. I tried, very hard, at 6:30 AM (the things I do for a blip), not knowing the bus schedule or route, to get a shot of the bus, hopefully picking up a student. Was returning home in failure, when the bus passed on the street above, and I scrambled to get this shot of the bus receding into the distance. In other words, I MISSED THE BUS!

Turns out, it shows the ‘ruralness’ of The Point.