Marion school bus stalls during first stop

One school bus was stalled Thursday during a morning route at Marion Schools due to subzero temperatures.

The bus was on its first stop on its approximately 50-minute route at the Lodge at McGregor Lake when it stalled. The diesel fuel began gelling under temperatures reported at minus 30 degrees.

Without cellphone service, the bus driver was unable to contact the school district or a mechanic until a staff member at the lodge arrived for work.

Marion Principal Cherie Stobie said the school was first alerted to the situation when parents started calling about the bus not arriving at bus stops.

After the bus driver contacted the school, an automated message went out to parents around 7:45 a.m. alerting them that staff members would pick up students and bring them to school.

Stobie said she believed that most students didn’t wait very long outside in the frigid temperatures.

“It was pretty cold, so most kids went into houses or were waiting in vehicles,” Stobie said. “Probably the most anyone waited was 15 minutes in a car before driving to school or going back home.”

She said some students who decided to walk to school from their bus stops were stopped and picked up by staff members.

Stobie said everyone arrived at the school around 8:30 a.m. (about 10 minutes late).

A field trip was scheduled later that day and another bus was brought in for the afternoon. A mechanic arrived at the stalled bus and used a fuel additive to get the bus going again.

In the future, Stobie said the school plans to move a two-way radio and antenna located in another part of the building into the main office as an alternate way to communicate with bus drivers.

“We have a short-wave radio that is in the old part of our building. We built a new part of our building about a year ago and it was never moved,” Stobie said. “Hopefully the weather clears up so we can move the antenna.”

In regard to school closures during inclement weather, Marion Schools usually follows suit with what its high school district — Kalispell Public Schools — decides, Stobie said.