The Public Transportation Board may have to revamp the Island's bus system to accommodate students at the senior secondary school next year.

PTB director Herman Basden told The Royal Gazette the board was getting ready to launch an Island-wide survey, taking into account the school at Prospect which is scheduled to open next September and accommodate some 900 14-to-17-year-old students.

"With the number of buses they need we just can't put four buses up there,'' he said. "It has to be integrated into the schedule. It is an enormous problem as much as we have to take the schedule apart and build it up again.'' Mr. Basden said PTB was aware of where the senior secondary and middle schools will be located. But he said PTB needed to know how many buses will be required for the schools.

"I expect that somebody will be coming to speak with us from the Education Department,'' he added.

"But whether we hear or not, we are starting to look at schedules for a number of schools and that one (the school at Prospect) is included.'' The Education Ministry, in its Restructuring information pamphlet released two years ago, anticipated that some 60 to 70 percent of students of students old enough to ride autocycles will use them for school.

Various alternatives to reducing traffic congestion were being considered, it said, including a requirement that students successfully complete a vehicle competency programme before being allowed to ride to school.

Principal of the senior school Ernest Payette said the issue of transportation for students at the school was important and up for discussion.

He noted that students with cycles will be more of a problem in the morning rather than at the end of the school day.

"(As a principal) you want your school to start at reasonably the same time,'' Mr. Payette said. "Staggered starts are not good for kids and usually not good for the school system.

"You can end the day staggered. Students usually stagger themselves, those who leave after school, those who stay for extra help, for the arts programme or social things.'' He pointed out that the schools which he knew of in Ontario provided transportation for students unless they lived within walking distance.

"And we had our own bus systems which were monitored and managed,'' he noted.

"Only senior students, 18 year olds, were allowed to bring their vehicles to school.

"So we have to look at the dynamics of all this. No decision has been made so far. But it is something we have to address.'' Preliminary discussions had been held, he said, adding that he planned to meet with PTB.

However, Mr. Payette -- who took up his post a month ago -- noted that the school was in an ideal location.

"The fact that you can manage the access in and out, the flow of traffic, is very useful because you don't want it on a main thoroughfare with a large number of students,'' he said.

"The facilities are excellent. I was extremely impressed with the facilities.

What impressed me most is fact that they went away from the traditional rectangular high school design to almost a mini-campus design which is ideal in terms of providing programmes within areas. The availability of materials and resources that are going to exist in the school are exemplary.'' Mr. Payette added: "The schools systems I've come from in Ontario, especially the metropolitan areas, have some wonderful schools. But I think this school can compete with any school in Ontario.

"There is no school in my own county that will offer the equivalent of what this school has in terms of the potential that's there, based on range of programmes that it can offer, access to technology and current technology, the networking of the school.''