School transport: update

The Collectivité de Saint-Martin has organized school transport to transport students to public schools in the area. For the 2024-2025 school year, 13 lines are open between Oyster-pond and Baie Nettle. The Collectivité is doing everything possible to adjust the operation of these lines and allow optimal support for students. In addition, the Executive Council voted to reduce the cost of school transport by 50% for the 2024-2025 school year, from €140 to €70 per year per child.

Access to school transport is open to all public students, from primary to secondary classes. In accordance with the public market, school transport is open throughout the territory, from Oyster Pond to Nettle Bay.

In order to best support parents, the executive council, under the leadership of the 3rd Vice-President Dominique Louisy, in charge of Human Development and Citizenship, voted for a significant reduction of 50% in school transport for the year 2024-2025, or €70 per child per year. This decision is also intended to encourage parents to register children for regulated school transport in order to avoid the use of non-regulated transporters.

Three transport companies have been officially selected as part of the call for tenders launched by the Collectivité for school transport. In total, 26 school buses of different capacities make daily journeys for an estimated 1,000 students.

Since the beginning of the school year, difficulties have been reported on certain lines. Some awarding companies have failed to operate as set up and students have not been taken care of for several days. To remedy this situation, the Collectivité immediately reviewed the system to accommodate all students and ensure that the buses provided correspond to the number of places provided for in the public contract. The Collectivité thus reassures parents of students and informs them that any failure to comply with the terms of the contract will be penalized by formal notices.

The Collectivité is doing everything possible to transport students in optimal safety conditions and would like to apologize to parents for the malfunctions that have occurred on certain lines.