It's back to class for students in the Foothills School Division next Thursday Sept. 1.

Getting a lot of them there is the business of the division's transportation department.

Assistant Superintendent Drew Chipman says it's a busy time getting everything prepared.

"We always have those individuals that are on the wait list calling to see if they're able to get on the bus at this time," he says. "it takes us a little while to see what some of the ridership is going to be on some of our buses, especially the in-town buses so we do get some calls and we answer those as quickly as we can."

He says the staff is familiar with how to put put together the schedules and a lot of it comes down to seeing what the ridership is and seeing where they can add on to it.

Chips says the last couple of years they've had a good number of bus drivers for the regular routes.

"We've been doing a great job making sure that have people that are prepared and ready to go," Chipman says. "We do our own training, we've got some great trainers that are able to make sure that we have the kind of people we need ready to go as soon as we need them."

As for when the buses are not able to roll because of the weather, Chipman says they make sure the drivers, wherever possible, call parents directly but they also get the information out through social media and through AM1140, Sun Country 99.7 and the Eagle 100.9.