This week's extreme cold has led to widespread school bus cancellations, including here in the Foothills.

It's left some locals scratching their heads, wondering why school divisions don't just cancel classes altogether.

Assistant Superintendent with the Foothills School Division, Drew Chipman, says it takes a lot to cancel classes altogether, whereas bus routes frequently have to be cancelled for safety reasons.

"When there's a problem with the school with, say utilities, there's no water, no heat, then we're closing schools because we want to make sure everybody's safe. When the schools are operating well, even when it's this cold, they're open. The difference when you look at cancelling bussing when it's this cold, buses have a lot of glass. They're relatively hard to keep warm when it's super cold, especially if something happened to a bus. They'd cool down very, very quickly."

With sometimes days-long waits for towing or roadside assistance, it's a chance that school divisions just can't take.

Though it may seem like an easy call just to cancel classes outright, there's a lot more to it.

Associate Superintendent with Christ the Redeemer Catholic Schools, Michael Kilcommons, says many parents rely on schools to assure their kids are accounted for.

"As a general practice, we recognize that we are a place for students always. There are many occasions where parents might not be able to provide childcare. In events with sudden temperature changes, parents need more than 15 or 24 hours to suddenly find daycare if that same parent is working outside of the home and is desperate. We realize we're providing a service for people on top of the education."

He says the social side of school is something many parents and students don't want to be interrupted either.

"In many cases, it's parents who want their children to have that opportunity to be out of the house, to socialize. There is the educational factor, especially when you get into the upper grades where students are making the decision of 'no, this is good for my education, I want to be there.'"

Chipman points out that, even though it's the week before Christmas, schools aren't treating the week as a write-off.

"There's learning going on in schools, especially at the high school level. There are exams coming up at the end of the semester, really right after Christmas. With the late Christmas break this year, with Christmas being on a Sunday, they come back to school and really, they only have a week of school before they're into exams. These are important times, at the high school level especially, to get kids ready for those exams."

Despite what one might expect with so many bus cancellations, local schools haven't been feeling like ghost towns this week.

"You'd expect that, with buses not running, maybe our numbers are way down. They're not, students are getting to school. We want to make sure there's learning going on and students are accessing what they need, and that's happening in our schools."